By Matters India Reporter
Ranchi: Officials of the Crime Branch of Maharashtra police on August 28 raided a Jesuit social activist priest based in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand in the east.
The special police team from the western Indian state seized gadgets such as computers, laptop, cell phones, SIM cards, iPod, compact discs, tribal literatures and a press release on the Pathalgadi [movement] released a few weeks ago from the office and residence of Father Stan Lourdusamy who is popularly known as Stan Swamy.
Assistant Police Inspector Shivaji Pawar of Pune city’s Swargate division led the raid. However, no arrest has been made.
Similar raids were reportedly conducted at the houses of activists in Delhi, Faridabad, Goa, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
The police teams searched houses of Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Gautam Navlakha in New Delhi and Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad, an outskirts of the national capital.
Another team raided the houses of Varavara Rao and his family members and two other activists, Kranti Tekula and Naseem, in Hyderabad. In Goa, Dalit scholar Anand Teltumbde’s house was raided in his absence. Police reportedly entered the house after taking the keys from the security guard.
Father Davis Solomon, superior of the Jesuit center where Father Swamy lives, said the police team landed the place in Bagaicha in the outskirts of Ranchi at around 6 am and searched the office and living room of Father Swamy for about two hours.
The officials, he told Matters India, did not serve any search warrant instead handed over a note written in Marathi language before entering the office-cum-residential complex.
“We have asked the officials to get the note translate into English as we do not follow Marthi,” Father Solomon added.
The police team agreed to supply a translated copy of the search order from a senior police official of the Maharashtra police.
The priest, according to sources, is implicated in a case registered with Vishrambaug police station in Pune, cultural capital of Maharashtra.
The Jesuit priest, according to the Maharashtra police, faces “heinous charges” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 such as involvement in act of terrorism, conspiracy, membership with a terrorist organization, support given to a terrorist organization, raising fund for terrorist a terrorist organization.
He also faces various charges under the Indian Penal Code such as promoting enmity between different groups, creating fear among people and criminal conspiracy.
The assistant commissioner of police, Pune issued the search order to the investigation officer on August 24 for search operation at the residence of Father Swamy.
The order also directs the officer to film the entire proceedings of search.
Rights activists have suggested that more raids are in progress in other parts of the country.
The raids are reportedly linked to investigations into a public meeting organized days before caste-related violence erupted at Bhima Koregaon near Pune on January 1. Large groups burnt and stoned vehicles and property. One person died during the clashes.
An initial outcry focused on Hindutva groups in instigating the violence. But in March, the state government said it could find no evidence against Shiv Prathishtan Hindustan leader Sambhaji Bhide, who reportedly gave an inflammatory speech near the village of Bhima Koregaon days before the New Year violence.
Since June, the police investigation turned to activists working with Dalits, Adivasis and political prisoners instead. The police have claimed that speeches made at the public meeting in Pune, called the Elgaar Parishad, had sparked the violence. The investigators have targeted activists they allege had helped organize the meeting.