Letter To The Editor, With Love From Pune Police

The Bhima Koregaon raids brought out the worst in a section of TV news media. Yet again.

WrittenBy:Cherry Agarwal
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Since the arrest of five activists—Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawale, and Mahesh Raut—for their alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon violence in June, the case has moved forward.

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More arrests were made, including those of lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad, Gautam Navlakha from Delhi, Varavara Rao from Hyderabad, and Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves from Mumbai.

During the multi-city raids that preceded these two sets of arrests, the police claimed that it found a bunch of documents, including letters, which spoke of several things, including a ‘Rajiv Gandhi-type assassination’, Maoist activities to create a ‘Kashmir-like’ situation, procuring of arms and raising funds, among others. These letters are at the heart of much of Big Media’s reporting on the Bhima Koregaon raids.

On August 31, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Parambir Singh, along with Pune Joint Commissioner of Police Shivaji Bodkhe, and investigating officer Shivaji Pawar, addressed a press conference. In the conference, the Maharashtra police released details of some of the letters that it claims to have recovered during the June raids.

It is to be noted that some of these letters had already been circulating in the media. For example, during the presser, the “police claimed these letters mention plans to allegedly purchase grenade launchers and ammunition worth 8 crore.” News agency ANI had posted a tweet on June 8 which mentions these details. The Bombay High Court has questioned the need for such a press conference.

Last weekend, we witnessed so-called media exposés with more letters—incriminating, unverified and unsubstantiated—and police-fed claim. These letters are yet to become part of the court records, something that a section of the media hasn’t concerned itself with.

Since the August 28 arrests, the most dominant focus of the media was on the activists’ “Maoist” links (The Hindu, The Indian Express: Aug 29), their “Naxalite” links (Times of India, Aug 29), their attempt to establish connection with J&K (Zee News, Aug 28; India TV, Aug 30), and their earlier run-ins with the law (NDTV, The Quint, Republic TV, Indian Express, Aug 29).

The coverage also included defamatory headlines based on unverified letters and unsubstantiated claims. Sample this: “Maoist sympathisers” (Deccan Herald, August 29; Times Now, August 28), “activist ‘plot’” (Hindustan Times, Aug 29), the media’s favourite “Urban Naxals” (Zee News, Times Now, Republic TV, Aug 28; India TV, Aug 30), “naxal poison” (My Nation, August 31); hashtags: #UrbanNaxalsExposed, #MaoistsCrackdown, #NationalistsVsMaoists and #IndiaVsMaoists.

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Trial by media

India TV’s August 30 show claimed to have eight letters written by Naxalites. On Times Now, Rahul Shivshankar thundered on to reveal ‘sensational disclosures’ in the case. He accepted on prime time that the information that they are putting out “might be true, may not be true”. But that was not all. He justified this lack of independent scrutiny with: “what we have been putting out over the last three months is information being gathered by the police during their investigation”.

While Times Now was running “police’s claims”, India TV’s anchor was busy making a case for the police. “There must be some reason for the Pune police to make these arrests,” the anchor said, ignoring what happened in the conclusions to the Ryan School case and the Arushi Talwar case.

The anchor also brought up the #PlotToKillPM when she went on to state that the five activists were nazarband in a case against the PM. This despite the fact that the police’s remand report makes no mention of the alleged assassination plot.

India TV also claimed—evidence be damned—that these individuals are responsible for spreading Urban Naxalism. It said the letters are enough to prove a direct connection with naxalites, and some of the activists have had a role to play in bigger naxalite attacks. India TV also dubbed Sudha Bharadwaj as the “sutradhar” of the Bhima Koregaon baithak. In a hurry to put out the letters written by her, the channel broadcast a letter written by “R” to a Comrade Prakash. The narrative seemed to be to convince the public that the activists are not as ‘innocent’ as they claim.

As for the alleged letter written by Bharadwaj where she seems to be eloquently talking about making contact with Kashmiri separatists, the channel failed to present her rejoinder which categorically questioned the letter’s authenticity. 

Zee News’ Sudhir Chaudhary held an entire show on the letters. He started the programme stating that he was not sure if these letters were indeed written by Bhardwaj but went on to flash her pictures on the screen before he read out the contents of the letter. Moreover, the show on YouTube is headlined, “DNA analysis of Sudha Bhardwaj’s letter.”

This is precisely the point, though: it is an ongoing investigation and the chargesheet is yet to be filed. Putting out unverified letters and playing the police’s claims on loop takes away the right to a fair trial from those accused.

But India TV or Zee News are not alone. An entire bouquet of television channels and newspapers contributed to the media trial. Papers like The Times of India carried prominent headlines attributed solely to policemen, such as “All 5 associated with CPI (Maoist): Pune cops”. If only they knew mere membership to a banned group doesn’t make one a criminal—the Supreme Court says so too.

On August 29, The Indian Express published a piece stating that Vernon Gonsalves was convicted in a 2007 case for possession of arms. But the paper did not deem it important to mention that the conviction was challenged in the Nagpur High Court (Appeal Number 469 is pending before the court). Of the 20 cases against Gonsalves, he has been cleared in 17 cases.

What do those arrested have to say?

Activist Sudha Bharadwaj said in a statement that these letters “are totally concocted” and “fabricated” to criminalise her and other human rights lawyers, activists and organisations.

Gautam Navlakha, after the court stayed the transit remand, said “The entire case is a political ploy against political dissent by this vindictive cowardly government.” He added that the government is bent upon shielding the real culprits of Bhima Koregaon, and is diverting attention from its own “scams and failures”.

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Speaking to Newslaundry about the role of the police machinery in the case, advocate Susan Abraham, who is Vernon Gonsalves’s wife, said: “It is a kind of vindictive prosecution.” Abraham was referring to the discrepancies between the remand report filed before the court and the claims otherwise made by the police. The allegations of an assassination plot, and of procuring arms, have found no mention in the police’s remand report, she said.

As for the media’s role in the process, Abraham said that a sort of hysteria has been whipped up by the media that has “queered the pitch against the accused for a fair trial. We have seen this in so many cases where this kind of hysteria has been whipped up. An example being the Arushi Talwar murder case where the entire media went hysterical that it must be the parents.”

Referring to the FIR against Ekbote and Bhide, Abraham added there was a “constant attempt to take the attention away from the perpetrators of the violence”.

The original case

These crackdown on activists follows a complaint by someone called Tushar Damgude, who claimed to have heard inflammatory speeches made at the Elgaar Parishad, an event organised on the eve of the bicentenary celebrations of the Bhima Koregaon battle.

Apart from Damgude’s complaint, several others were registered in relation to the Bhima Koregaon violence. Of those, the other two that are most referred to were filed by Anita Savale and Akshay Bikkad, respectively. While Savale alleged she saw the followers of two Hindutva leaders, Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote, throwing stones and assaulting people; Bikkad alleged that “provocative speeches were delivered” at the Parishad, Scroll reported.

On the basis of these complaints, FIRs were registered against Bhide and Ekbote, and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and student leader Umar Khalid respectively. While Khalid, Mevani and Bhide are yet to be questioned, Ekbote was arrested in March. He is currently out on bail.

What really happened at Bhima Koregaon?

Bhima Koregaon is a village 40 kilometres from Pune, Maharashtra. This village is where a war memorial was built to commemorate the 1818 victory of Mahar soldiers (an 846-strong East India company unit with 500 Mahar soldiers) over Peshwa Bajirao II’s army. Over the years, the obelisk has come to become a symbol of Dalit pride, and lakhs of Dalits gather here annually to celebrate this victory.

Approximately 4 km from Bhima Koregaon is a village called Vadhu Budruk, where Maratha ruler Shivaji’s son, Sambhaji, was cremated, believably by a Dalit resident, Govind Mahar Gaikwad, who defied Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The village has the tombs of both Sambhaji and Gaikwad. On December 29, the latter’s tomb was vandalised, leading to tension in the village. Subsequently, the Bhima Koregaon panchayat announced a bandh.

Elgaar Parishad took place two days after this incident, on December 31— the eve of the bicentenary of the Bhima Koregaon battle. It was organised in the backdrop of Pune’s Shaniwarwada Fort, the seat of the Peshwas until 1818. This was also the place where the alleged incendiary speeches were made.

Siddharth Dhande—deputy mayor of Pune—told Newslaundry that on the day of the commemoration, Dalits defied the bandh and went ahead towards the war memorial via inner lanes. This was when stones were pelted on them, allegedly by people carrying saffron flags, leading to clashes and widespread violence.

Within days of the incident, Savale and Bikkad registered their complaints.

On a side note, while the FIR asserts that these activists organised and funded the Elgar Parishad, the two retired judges—Justices BG Kolse-Patil and PB Sawant—who claim to be the main organisers of the event state they are yet to be questioned.

With timely leaks and fantastical assassination plots that link everyone from the Congress party to Maoists to Jignesh Mewani, the police have kept the media distracted from asking questions on what exactly led to the violence in Bhima Koregaon.

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