The Pune Police of Maharashtra in a joint operation, on August 28, carried out raids across the country and arrested five activists who allegedly subscribed to Naxal [Left Wing Extremism, LWE] ideology, reports DNA. The Police teams raided the homes of prominent activists in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Telangana, Haryana, Ranchi and Goa. The investigators allege that those arrested are connected to the Elgaar Parishad, which is allegedly funded by the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). According to Police, the arrests were made based on the information received while probing the Naxal connection with the Elgaar Parishad in Pune. Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad in Telangana, while the other four persons arrested include Sudha Bharadwaj, a trade union activist from Faridabad of Haryana, civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha from Delhi, activist Arun Ferreira from Thane and Vernon Gonsalves from Mumbai in Maharashtra. However, both (Bharadwaj and Navlakha) are under house arrest. Investigators stated that evidence suggested that the arrested persons are alleged Naxal sympathisers and allegedly involved in Naxal activities. There are allegations that some of the arrested persons had even hatched a conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Meanwhile, the team that went to Ranchi to carry out searches at the residence of senior Leftist activist Sten Swami clarified that he has not been arrested. The Police team seized laptops, CDs, cellphones and other materials from the premises of the arrested persons.
Sources from the Director General of Police (DGP), Mumbai said that Ferreira and Gonsalves were part of the group which was arrested by the Pune Police in June. "The group was instrumental in funding the Elgaar Parishad," said an unnamed senior Police officer. Ferreira, a resident of St Martin's Road, Bandra (West) was arrested in 2006 by the Nagpur Police in a Naxal-related case but was acquitted. Sources from the Pune Police stated that a case pertaining to Elgaar Parishad organised at Shaniwar Wada in 2017 was registered at the Vishrambaug Police Station in which five persons, identified as Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut and Shoma Sen were arrested in June 2018. "The police had seized 25,000 GB data from them. While scrutinising the data, we found evidences against Rao, Bharadwaj, Navlakha, Ferreira and Gonsalves. They are involved in Naxal activities," said the senior Police officer from the Pune Police.