Bhima Koregaon : Bombay HC Asks Gonsalves To Explain Why He Had Certain Books And CDs With Him

(Corrected and updated with subsequent clarifications of Bombay HC)

On the second day of bail plea hearings of three accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Arun Ferreira, Pune police submitted before the Bombay High Court that by far nothing incriminating had been found against Vernon Gonsalves in the material recovered from his house.

APP Aruna Pai submitted before Justice SV Kotwal that as of today nothing was found against activist Vernon Gonsalves who was arrested for his involvement in the violence that took place in Bhima Koregaon, Pune on January 1, 2018.

Gonsalves has been charged under UAPA. In the search conducted a year back at his house in Andheri, there is no evidence of anything against him, Desai said.

Justice Kotwal asked APP Aruna Pai about the electronic evidence recovered from Gonsalves's house.

"FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory) report of all the electronic evidence recovered from his house are awaited. But from the clone copies we have not found anything incriminating from the house." Pai replied.

However, APP Pai argued that books and CDs were seized from Gonsalves's house which could constitute incriminating evidence against the 61-year-old academic Gonsalves.

"You have relied upon letters from someone else's laptop but not added material from his house to the charge sheet. There is no description of the CDs you have seized from his house. What do these CDs contain, is that not important? It should be a part of the charge sheet" Court remarked.

Desai told the Court that a CD of Jai Bhim comrade, a documentary by Anand Patwardhan, have been seized along with some Marxist archives. Among the seized materials there was a CD titled 'Rajya Daman Virodhi by the Kabir Kala Manch, and Leo Tolstoy's classic 'War and Peace'. ( Correction : The judge clarified  the next day that he was not referring to Tolstoy's "War and Peace", but the book "War and Peace in Janglemahal" by Biswajit Roy, and expressed displeasure at misreporting. The APP had not mentioned the name of the book ""War and Peace in Junglemahal" in full, and hence it was presumed that it referred to Tolstoy's book. The error is deeply regretted.)

"Nature of the books and CDs suggest you are a part of a banned organisation, why did you have these books at home? Justice Kotwal asked

"Mere possession of these books does not make one a terrorist" Desai replied.

The hearing will continue on Thursday. Court has asked Gonsalves to explain why such material was kept in his possession and also asked APP Pai to convince the court on the electronic evidence against Gonsalves.  

Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreire were arrested last August by Pune police on the allegation that they had instigated the Bhima-Koregaon violence which took place in Pune on January 1, 2018. On allegation that they have links with Maoists, charges under UAPA have been applied against them.