Pune: Pune police on Thursday filed a supplementary chargesheet at a special UAPA court here against five persons including rights activists Sudha Bharadwaj and fugitive Maoist leader Ganapathy in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Police had filed the first charge sheet in the case against ten persons at the special court for Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA in November 2018.
According to the police, the speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave on December 31, 2017, which was allegedly funded by Maoists, “aggravated” the violence near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial in Pune district the next day.
“Today we submitted a supplementary charge sheet against Bharadwaj, Telugu poet Varavara Rao activists Arun Ferriera, Vernon Gonsalves and fugitive general secretary of the banned CPI (Maoist) Ganapathy alias Chandrashekhar,” said joint commissioner of police Shivaji Bodkhe here Thursday.
The chargesheet, running into over 1,800 pages, was submitted before additional sessions Judge Kishor Vadane.
“It includes evidence retrieved from electronic devices seized from the arrested activists,” Bodkhe said.
The accused are charged with “waging war against the nation”, the police officer said.
The first charge sheet named ten accused including activists Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhavale who were arrested in June 2018, and absconding Maoist leaders Dipak alias Milind Teltumbade, Kishan Da alias Prashant Bose and Prakash alias Rituparn Goswami.
Bharadwaj and the others were arrested in September.