Mumbai: The National Investigations Agency has accused the cultural

group Kabir Kala Mancha (KKM) of being a frontal organisation of the

banned terrorist Communist Party of India (Maoist).

The agency made this accusation while seeking custody of the two
KKM shahirs  (bards) who were arrested on September 7 for their alleged
involvement in the ongoing Elgar Parishad case. The designated NIA court
today handed both 32-year-old Sagar Gorkhe and 36-year-old Ramesh
Gaichor over to the agency’s custody until September 11.

Meanwhile, in Pune, another KKM activist, Jyoti Jagtap, was summoned to

the city office of the state Anti- Terrorism Squad. From there, Jagtap too
was taken into NIA custody. She will be produced at the NIA court on
September 9.

KKM is a Pune-based cultural troupe that was formed by youth belonging

to the Bahujan community from across Maharashtra. Several working-class
musicians and poets had come together after the 2002 communal riots in
Gujarat and formed their own cultural group to sing songs of resistance and
state repression. They have also been vocal against caste atrocities across
the country.

Also read: FIR Against Kabir Kala Manch Members, Others for ‘Promoting
Enmity’ At Bhima Koregaon Event

The three arrested activists were also primary organisers of the Elgar
Parishad event that was organised under the banner of ‘Bhima Koregaon
Shaurya Din Prerana Abhiyan’ on December 31, 2017 at Pune’s
Shaniwarwada area. The site, considered to be a quintessential Brahmin
bastion was chosen as a symbol of protest against the Brahminical state
order. An FIR was soon filed against the organisers and Gorkhe, Gaichor
and Jagtap were named in the FIR.

Today, while seeking Gorkhe and Gaichor’s custody, the NIA claimed that
the duo had visited Gadchiroli for “arms training” and have “deep-rooted
connection with the Naxalites [Maoists]”.

“The arrested accused persons were in contact with absconding accused

Milind Teltumbde [believed to be a top-rung leader of the banned CPI
(Maoist) organisation] and the Urban network of CPI (Maoist),” the NIA
has claimed. They have also alleged that the accused “during their visits to
the jungle, underwent weapon and explosive training and awareness
programme on various topics related to the Maoist movement.”
 The NIA, similar to allegations made by the Pune police, have claimed that
Milind Teltumbde had discussed details of the Elgar Parishad event with
those arrested and the CPI (Maoist) had subsequently made inroads into the
organisation. The alleged crime of inciting violence was “executed through
the members of Kabir Kala Munch [Manch] and other frontal
organisations”.

While the Ministry of Home Affairs of India has banned a number of

organisations that have been proscribed as “terrorist organisations” under
the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the KKM does not appear on the
list. Several investigating agencies, from time to time, have accused
numerous cultural and human rights organisations of being “frontal outfits”
without really going through the legal processes of proving their
“illegality”.

Also read: Birds in the Prison Barracks: An Interview with Kabir Kala

Manch’s Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor

The NIA and earlier the Pune police have claimed that all 15 accused who
have been arrested in the case are “urban Naxals” who were responsible for
violence that had been unleashed on the Dalits visiting the Bhima
Koregaon Vijay Stambh, just outside Pune, on January 1, 2018.

The duo, like several other witnesses in the case, had been summoned to
the NIA’s Mumbai office on multiple occasions. Minutes after their arrest,
their troupe members had released a video of Gorkhe and Gaichor narrating
how they were allegedly pressured by the NIA officials to confess to false
events if they wanted to escape arrest. When the duo refused, they were
allegedly arrested.

In the video, recorded on September 5, Gorkhe can be heard saying, “We

won’t confess. We aren’t the progeny of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar but
are children of Ambedkar. We will fight back.”

These allegations that the duo was harassed by the NIA to provide their
confessional statements were brought up before the NIA court today. Their
lawyer, Nihalsing Rathod, argued that the duo had been harassed and cited
section 163 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which prohibits any kind of
inducement to be offered to the witness or accused.

“You have named my clients in the FIR in 2018, you have called them for
questioning time and again. You have already conducted raids at their
locations two years ago. To dispel any kind of apprehensions, it would be
best that the NIA brings on record the audio and video recording of their
interrogation,” Rathod argued in the court.

Also read: After Three Years in Jail, India’s ‘Most Dangerous’ Singers

Finally Make Bail

The NIA, however, claimed that it has not recorded the interrogation.
Incidentally, the agency had also summoned Rathod for “inquiry” on
September 7. Like Rathod, several other lawyers involved in the defence in
the case have been summoned for questioning. They have all termed the
NIA’s move as an attack on their privilege to access important information
about the clients they are representing in the case.

This is not the first time that Gorkhe and Gaichor have been arrested. In a
similar accusation, they were arrested in 2013, by the state ATS under the
then Congress-NCP government, and had to spend four years in jail before
they were granted bail. It has been over seven years and the case is still
pending before the trial court. Jagtap, who was named in the earlier FIR,
was not arrested then.  

Arrests so far

All arrested accused have been booked under several sections of the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, along with sections of the Indian
Penal Code. Before the KKM activists, the Pune police and NIA have
together arrested 12 activists, lawyers, and academics from various parts of
the country. Most of them have maintained that they had no role to play in
the Elgar Parishad and had, in fact, never visited Bhima Koregaon in their
lives.