‘Don’t jail Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha amid Covid-19 crisis,’ global scholars urge India

More than 15 social rights organisation and over 5,000 individuals across the world have signed a statement in solidarity with activists Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha, urging the Centre to delay their arrest in the Bhima Koregaon violence case in view of the coronavirus outbreak. Teltumbde and Navlakha are expecting to be arrested by April 6 after the Supreme Court on March 16 rejected their anticipatory bail petitions. The civil rights activists were charged under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code following the violence at Bhima Koregaon village near Pune on January 1, 2018. The group also said that the arrest of Teltumbde and Navlakha marks “another escalation in ongoing efforts to target dissent” in the Bhima Koregaon case. A special court in Mumbai on Tuesday rejected the temporary bail plea of activists Varavara Rao and Shoma Sen accused in the Elgar Parishad case . Dalit Mahar soldiers fighting for the British Army defeated the Brahmin Peshwa rulers of the Maratha empire in the battle in 1818. On June 6, 2018, they arrested Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut from Nagpur, Sudhir Dhawale from Mumbai, and Rona Wilson from Delhi. On August 28, 2018, the police arrested five more activists – Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha. By this time, the accusations against the activists had grown from inciting the violence in Bhima Koregaon to alleged involvement in a nationwide “Maoist” conspiracy to destabilise democracy , overthrow the government by setting up an “anti-fascist front” and plotting to assassinate Narendra Modi. All of the activists were labelled as “urban Naxalites” and accused of being members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).