A raging pandemic and nationwide lockdown this year did not stop the National Investigation Agency from making more arrests in the controve...
A raging pandemic and nationwide lockdown this year did not stop the National Investigation Agency from making more arrests in the controversial Bhima Koregaon case of 2018.Academic Anand Teltumbde and journalist Gautam Navlakha were arrested in April, and Delhi University professor MT Hany Babu was arrested in July.
They joined nine other social activists, lawyers and academicians who have been in jail for two years under the anti-terrorism law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, facing charges of participating in a Maoist conspiracy to overthrow the government and assassinate the prime minister. According to the police, the conspiracy extended to fomenting anti-government sentiments at the Elgar Parishad, an event organised by Dalit and human rights organisations in Pune in western Maharashtra, leading to the eruption of caste-based riots between Maratha and Dalit groups near Bhima Koregaon village on January 1, 2018.
While fresh arrests in the conspiracy case were carried out despite the risks associated with Covid-19 in overcrowded jails, the Maharashtra government has stalled the investigation into the actual incident of violence at Bhima Koregaon, because of the lockdown.
For the past five months, the state government has not renewed the tenure of the Bhima Koregaon Commission of Inquiry, a two-member judicial commission set up in February 2018 to...
