In yet another case of sheer negligence on the part of the ‘system’, a top Maoist ideologue of the People’s War Group (PWG), an outlawed outfit which merged with the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) to form Communist Party of India (Maoist) has been freed by a Patna court citing lack of evidence against the accused.
Tusharkant Bhattacharya, aka Raghu aka Shyam aka JR Sahu was set free to walk away by Justice Vinay Prakash Tiwari in connection with the triple ‘U’ case lodged against Tusharkant in December 2007. The development occurred after none of the witnesses named in the case appeared before the court during the hearings.
The case pertains to the augmentation of outlawed CPI Maoist influence in triple U regions, including Uttar Bihar (North Bihar), Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, all northern states of Bharat. The case was lodged after the Bihar police arrested Tusharkant along with his acquaintance from Dujra Machli Bazar area under Buddha Colony police station limits in September 2007.
The arrest of Tusharkant grabbed significant attention at that time as police had claimed that the accused had arrived in Bihar to execute the triple U plan, though they were caught even before the implementation of the initial stages of their plan.
The police had also named as many as 11 police personnel as witnesses in the case, however shockingly despite the repeated directives of the court none of the witnesses named in the case appeared before the court ultimately leading to his acquittal.
It is pertinent to mention here that at the time of the arrest of Tusharkant the police team had also seized explosives, technical equipment for training along with a huge quantity of extremist literature from the possession of the accused. The police had also arrested an associate of Bhattacharya in the raid. However much to everyone’s surprise the police personnel did not turn up at the court for the hearings.
Who is Tusharkant Bhattacharya?
68 years old, Tusharkant Bhattacharya also known by other alias names is a hardcore Maoist ideologue, who had reportedly joined the far left extremist group PWG at its peak as a teenager. A resident of Adilabad of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Tusharkant was made an co-accused of Tappalapur killing of 1976 (a series of killings of landlords which allegedly revived the Naxal insurgency in India) with founder of the PWG group Kondapalli Seetharamaiah and Mupalla Laxmana Rao alias Ganapathy the former general secretary of the CPI Maoist.
He was arrested by the Bihar Special Task Force (STF) in 2007 following which he was taken to Andhra Pradesh where he spent around 6 years in jail. In 2017, Bhattacharya had also been nabbed by the Gujarat Anti Terror Squad (ATS) on charges of sedition, waging war against the state, he was also wanted in connection with a case registered against him in Kamrej police station of Surat in 2010.
According to the police, at the time of his arrest in 2007, Bhattacharya was working as chief of more than two states and was tasked with the work of augmenting the Maoist footprints in Bihar, UP and Uttarakhand. It is to be noted that Bhattacharya’s wife Soma sen, a Nagpur based professor was also made an accused in the infamous Elgaar Parishad CPI Maoist conclave held at Shaniwar Wada of Pune in December 2017. According to the security agencies, the conclave witnessed inflammatory speeches which ultimately triggered the violent clashes at Bhima Koregaon on the next day.
Notably, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its findings has so far claimed that the accused in the case were deeply involved with the banned CPI Maoist and were working against the sovereignty and integrity of Bharat. As many as 16 people including Gautam Navlakha, Surendra Gadling, professor Hanny Babu along with others have been slapped with charges of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) by the investigative agency in the case.
Similar acquittal in past
It is to be noted that this is not the first time that an arrested Maoist cadre has been acquitted by the court due to absence of witnesses and in light of lack of evidence. Earlier in a similar case reported from Jharkhand as many as two Maoists arrested by the police in 2012 were acquitted by a Jharkhand court after the witnesses in the case turned hostile and refused to identify the accused as perpetrators of the murder before the court in February this year.
The accused identified as Tribhuvan Munda and Ganesh Munda had earlier admitted their role in the crime before the court, however they were acquitted following the denial of as many as 8 policemen, named as witnesses in connection with a murder case of a fellow policeman.
In another case reported from Jharkhand itself, hardcore Maoist Pravir Da and his associates were also acquitted by the court after the police failed to produce crucial evidence to prove them guilty. The accused were charged for carrying out an explosion in a minibus during the 2014 general elections in which as many as 8 people including three security personnel were killed.
Notably, two more Maoist identified as Nageshwar Mahto and Navin Manjhi accused in a Maoist attack on Grand Trunk road were also set free by the court in January this year.
It is pertinent to mention here that the acquittal of Tusharkant has come at a time when the UP ATS have recently busted a Maoist network and nabbed as many as five active cadres of the outlawed CPI Maoist indulged in reviving the Maoist insurgency in bordering regions of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand from Ballia.
(Read the full report here)
During the initial interrogation, the arrested cadres revealed that the group was recruiting youths from colleges and universities to further augment the Maoist ideology by brainwashing them. The agencies also informed that the group has constantly roaming around different cities of Uttar Pradesh such as Varanasi, Chandauli and Ballia to recruit youths and established a solid network.
