Civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha, arrested for suspected links with Maoists, today alleged that the case against him was a "political ploy" of the government to target dissent. Navlakha was arrested by Maharashtra Police yesterday along with four other Left-wing activists for alleged unlawful activities. The Delhi High Court has ordered that he be confined at his residence in New Delhi.


"The entire case is a political ploy against political dissent by this vindictive and cowardly government, which is bent upon shielding the real culprits of Bhima Koregaon and thus divert attention from its own scams and failures which stretch from Kashmir to Kerala," Navlakha said in a statement issued by the civil rights group People's Union for Democratic Rights of which he is a part.


"A political trial must be fought politically and I welcome this opportunity. I have to do nothing. It is for the Maharashtra police, working at the behest of their political masters, to prove their case against me, and my comrades who too have been arrested," he said.


He said PUDR has collectively and fearlessly fought for more than 40 years for the cause of democratic rights and he has covered many such trials as part of the organisation.


"Now I myself will be a witness to a political trial with a ringside view," he said and also tagged a revolutionary song, "Tu zinda hai toh zindagi ki jeet par yakeen kar...", often sung by Leftists. Telugu poet Varavara Rao and activists Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj and Navlakha were arrested yesterday after multi-city searches. -- PTI


Image: Human rights activist Gautam Navlakha at his residence after he was arrested by the Pune police in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence, in New Delhi yesterday. Pic: PTI