New Delhi, Dec 11 (IANS) The Supreme Court will examine in January the charge-sheet filed by Maharashtra Police against five alleged urban Naxals accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case and for having links with the outlawed CPI (Maoist).
The Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi directed the hearing in January as senior counsel Indira Jaising appearing for the accused said that she needed time to go through the bulky charge-sheet running into more than 5,000 pages.
The Maharashtra Police had last week filed a charge-sheet running into 17 volumes against the five accused - Surendra Pundlik Gadling, Sudhir Pralhad Dhawale, Rona Jacob Wilson, Dr. Soma Sen and Mahesh Sitaram.
Along with the charge-sheet in Marathi running into more than 5,000 pages, the Maharashtra Police has also filed copies of the charge-sheet translated into English.
As senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi informed the court that the copies of the charge-sheet along with their translations have been filed, senior counsel Jaising said that she needed time to go through them.
The apex court in the last hearing on December 3 had directed the Maharashtra Police to place before it the charge-sheet filed against the accused along with the translated copy and a gist of the allegations made therein.
The court had directed that the particulars of another case filed against Gadling along with the complaint/FIR, as may be the case, be also filed.
The matter relates to the alleged singing of "objectionable songs" and instigating comments, speeches and sloganeering at the Elgar Conference by Dhawale and others at the Bhima-Koregaon Shouryadin Prerna Abhiyan organised by the Kabir Kala Manch on December 31, 2017.
Accusing the five activists of their links with the CPI (Maoist), the Maharashtra government has alleged that they mislead backward people and ingrained radical Maoist thoughts in their minds.
As part of their propoganda, the members of the Kabir Kala Manch -- Sudhir, Dhavale and others -- are known for their instigating speeches at various places in Maharashtra which would "create enmity and violence in the society", says the Maharashtra police.
(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
