Hanny Babu and 11 Others are accused of attending the Edgar Parishad, which allegedly impetus violence in Bhim Koregaon on 1 January 2018.
On Friday, a special court in Mumbai remanded Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu to judicial custody until 21 August, in relation to the Bhim Koregaon case.
The case connects to the 1 January 2018 violence that left one person dead and several injured, after clashes at the 200th-anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Koregaon.
Babu was the 12th person arrested in the case, with the others being well-known activists and lawyers. All 12 have been accused of being present at an event called the Elgar Parishad organized by Dalit-Ambedkarite groups the day before the bicentenary, which had “instigated” violence with its speeches, according to investigators.
Apart from Hany Babu, the 11 others have been arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and are accused of being factors of banned outfit CPI (Maoist). They were allegedly working to destabilize the country, including a conspiracy to assassinate PM Narendra Modi.
Babu is the fourth academic arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case — all four have been trenchant detractors of the Modi government.
Soon after his arrest, another Modi critic in the academic community, DU’s Prof. Apoorvanand, was interrogated for over three hours by the Delhi Police in connection with the February 2020 Delhi riots and alleged that his phone had been seized. Several research scholars from Jamia Millia Islamia and Jawaharlal Nehru University, too, have been arrested and questioned in relation to the riots.
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ELGAR PARISHAD CASE: NIA RAIDS AT DELHI UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR’S RESIDENCE
The media turns the spotlight to the four academics arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case.
