The Pune Police on Wednesday conducted searches at the home of human rights activist Stan Swamy in Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi as part of an ongoing investigation into the Bhima Koregaon case, The Indian Express reported.
A team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Shivaji Pawar, the investigation officer in the case, searched Swamy’s house around 7 am on Wednesday and seized electronic devices from there.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Suhas Bavache confirmed that Swamy’s house was searched to gather more evidence as a part of the ongoing investigation in the case and that material was seized from the house for further inquiry.
The Pune Police had raided Swamy’s home on August 28, 2018 in connection with the same case. Last year, the Pune Police had arrested 10 activists for allegedly being involved in an event that preceded the violence between Dalits and Marathas at Bhima Koregaon near Pune on January 1, 2018. They are accused of masterminding the violence and having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). Swamy is also suspected of being involved with them.
The Pune Police first arrested five activists – Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale – in June 2018 as part of the Bhima Koregaon investigation and the police filed a chargesheet against them. Two months later, activists Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao were arrested. They were subsequently placed under house arrest.
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