By Daisy Katta, TwoCircles.net
Six months after the Bhima Koregaon incident, Pune police along with Deonar Police, Mumbai barged into the office of Dalit Activist Sudhir Dhawale, the presiding member of Elgar Parishad early morning. The Pune police accompanied by the Deonar police carried out a search operation at Republican Panthers office in Chembur Lumbini Park area and detained him.Sudhir Dhawale is also the editor of left-leaning Ambedkarite magazine Vidhrohi.
Initially, the police came in for questioning without any warrant, but Dhawale was later escorted to Deonar police station after a warrant was produced. He is currently detained at Deonar Police Station for the time being and will be taken to Pune for further questioning.
A student activist from Republican Panthers present in support said, “This is only a ploy by the state to divert the attention from from the arrests of Sambahji Bhide.The police barged in and searched the party office without any warrant. This is a ploy to disrupt the Ambedkarite people and the movement. But we are not afraid because of these arrests , we will continue to fight.”
Vira Sathidar, Senior Ambedkarite activist who was present at the Deonar Police station told TwoCircles.net that the way the state is acting it is evident that they want to protect Sambhaji Bhide and they want to create unrest between the people to divert attention from the main issue.
It is to be noted that thousands of juvenile Dalit youths were arrested on January 1 from mainly Dalit areas of Mumbai as well and other parts of Maharahstra after right-wing activists carried out attack on people at Bhima, allegedly orchestrated by Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote.
Ambedkarite political parties like BHARIP led by Prakash Ambedkar and other factions of the RPI have been rallying to release the Dalits youth who were arrested during the Bhima Koregoan unrest.
The current arrests of Sudhir Dhawale and others have been made under the FIR registered on 8th January, 2018 at Vishrambaug Police Station, Pune with regard to the holding of the Elgar Parishad on 31st December, 2017 by the Bhima-Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyan. This FIR, originally registered u/s 153(A), 505 (1)(b), 117 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), was made a conspiracy case in March 2018 and now has had sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) added to it. UAPA includes detention without charge sheet up to 180 days.
Other activists like Adv Surendra Gadling, General Secretary Indian Association of People’s Lawyers from Nagpur; Prof Shoma Sen, Head of Department of English, Nagpur University; Rona Wilson, Public Relations Secretary Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners and Mahesh Raut, anti-displacement activist from Bharat Jan Andolan and former Fellow at Prime Minister’s Rural Development (PMRD) for Gadchiroli District have also been arrested.
The Deonar police station saw a huge crowd in support of Dhawale and other activities from the Republican Panthers group.