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New Delhi, June 8
The Pune police has intercepted an internal communication of Maoists planning a “Rajiv Gandhi-type” assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Excerpt from internal communication of Maoists intercepted by the Pune police said, “Comrades proposed concrete steps to end Modi-raj. We are thinking of Rajiv Gandhi-type incident. There is a good chance we might fail but the party must deliberate on it. Targeting his roadshows can be effective. We collectively believe that survival of the party is supreme to all sacrifices.”
It may be recalled that former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbedur, Tamil Nadu, by a suicide bomber from neighbouring Sri Lanka while on the campaign trail.
The Pune police told a court on Thursday that they seized the letter from the residence of one of the five persons they had arrested in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence. The letter was allegedly found in Bhima-Koregaon activist Rona Jacob’s laptop.
“Modi-led Hindu fascism is bulldozing its way into the lives of indigenous Adivasis. In spite of big defeats like Bihar and West Bengal, Modi has successfully established BJP government in more than 15 states. If this pace continues, then it would mean immense trouble for the party on all fronts. Greater suppression of dissent and more brutal form of Misson 2016 (OGH),” the letter read.
In the letter, it is written that for Moaists “defeating Hindu fascism has been our core agenda and a major concern for the party”.
“Several leaders from secret cells as well as open organisations have raised this issue very strongly. We are working to consolidate ties with like-minted organisations, political parties, and representatives of minorities across the country,” the letter further added.
In a press conference on Thursday, Pune Joint Commissioner of Police (CP) Ravindra Kadam said that during the investigation the police recovered “pen drive, hard disk and some other documents” which were later sent to forensics.
Rona Jacob was arrested in Delhi, Sudhir Dhawale in Mumbai and lawyer Surendra Gadling, who has defended several Maoists, besides Mahesh Raut and Shoma Sen from Nagpur.
Wilson, 47, was nabbed from a south Delhi neighbourhood in a joint operation by Delhi and the Maharashtra police.
Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police Sanjeev Yadav said Wilson, a Jawaharlal Nehru University alumnus, was hiding in a DDA flat in Munirka near the varsity.
The Nagpur homes of Raut and Sen were also raided even as the police were reportedly contemplating invoking the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against the accused.
Raut is a former Prime Minister Rural Development Fellow and has alleged links with Maoist groups in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra.
The arrested, according to police, had organised the Elgaar Parishad in Pune on December 31 last year to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the historic Anglo-Marathi battle between the British forces and the Peshwa Bajirao II.
The gathering was addressed, among others, by Gujarat Dalit leader and MLA Jignesh Mewani, former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, Chhattisgarh activist Soni Sori and Bhim Army President Vinay Ratan Singh.
A day later on January 1, there was the outbreak of caste riots in the Koregaon-Bhima which left one dead. A retaliatory Maharashtra shutdown call issued by Bharipa Bahujan Mahajan Sangh leader Prakash Ambedkar and other parties on January 3 also claimed one life.
Harshali Potdar, one of the coordinators of the Elgaar Parishad, said the arrests were “illegal… a ploy to victimize us and intended to save Sambhaji Bhide Guruji and Milind Ekbote”.
Bhide and Ekbote are Hindutva activists accused of triggering anti-Dalit violence.
Bhide is the founder-leader of Shree Shiv Pratisthan Hindustan and Ekbote is the leader of Samastha Hindu Aghadi.
Bhide was given a clean chit by the Maharashtra government but Ekbote was arrested in March for his role in the Koregaon-Bhima riots and later granted bail in April.
Leftist and Dalit groups staged protests in Mumbai and Nagpur and many activists condemned the arrests of their leaders.
In April, the Pune police raided homes and offices of these activists in different parts of the country and questioned them for their involvement in various activities.
