Latest news with #Bhelke
Indian Express
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Pune Crime Files: How activities of recently arrested ‘Maoist', known as ‘Laptop', resemble that of convicted Naxal Arun Bhelke
In 2014, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested Arun Bhelke and his wife Kanchan Nanaware from Pune for activities linked to the banned Communist Party of India (CPI-Maoist). While Kanchan, a heart patient, died on January 24, 2021, following a prolonged illness, on December 14, 2022, a special court in Pune convicted Bhelke for cheating and forgery, besides sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for terrorist acts. Investigators have observed significant similarities in Bhelke's operations and that of alleged CPI Maoist member Prashant Jalinder Kamble, 44, alias Laptop alias Sunil Jadhav, who was arrested by ATS from Pune, on May 4 this year. As per police and court records, both Bhelke and Kamble allegedly operated with multiple false identities and procured IDs with fake names. Both were allegedly working in urban areas, residing in Khalapur and other places in Maharashtra's Raigad district. Both allegedly worked closely with top CPI Maoist leader Milind Teltumbde, who was gunned down by the police in Gadchiroli in November 2021. Investigators had also seized a 'letter' from Bhelke mentioning 'Laptop'. Arun Bhelke and Kanchan Nanaware ATS nabbed Bhelke and Kanchan from Pune on September 1, 2014. The police said Bhelke alias Rajan alias Sharman Jadhav alias Anand was previously arrested in a Naxal case in Chandrapur in 2008. Out on bail, he and Kanchan, both from Chandrapur, were allegedly given charge of the Golden Corridor Committee of CPI-Maoist, to spread the banned movement in urban areas like Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nashik and Surat, officers said. As per the ATS chargesheet, Bhelke allegedly introduced himself as 'Sanjay Kamble' to some of the youths from the Kashewadi slum in Pune, gave them Maoist literature and planned to take them for 'training' in the jungle. The police said that during their college days, Bhelke and Kanchan were active members of the Chandrapur-based Deshbhakti Yuva Manch (DYM), alleged to be a 'front' of the CPI-Maoist. Officers said Bhelke also started a magazine College Katta in Chandrapur, but later he and his aides, including Kanchan, were allegedly indoctrinated by Maoist leaders. Surrendered Naxals Gopi Madavi and Krushna Dorpate had identified Arun as 'Rajan' and Kanchan as 'Bhoomi' before the court in Pune and submitted that the couple allegedly worked alongside Milind Teltumbde with armed Maiost cadres in Gadchiroli. According to the ATS, the couple resided at various places in Mumbai, Raigad, Pune with different names. ATS recovered a PAN card and Aadhaar card with the name Aditya Suresh Patil, bearing Bhelke's photo. The address on this Aadhaar card was found to be the office of the then corporator from the Govandi area in Mumbai. Besides, ATS had seized a PAN card and a Mumbai hospital patient identity card with the name Sonali Aditya Patil having Kanchan's photo. The ATS probe also revealed Bhelke and Kanchan had, before their arrest, allegedly taken different rooms on rent in Khalapur and Karjat in Raigad district, posing as Akash Narayan Bhagat and Shital Akash Bhagat. Around August 2014, they shifted to Pune and Bhelke took a room and a 'pan tapri (kiosk)' on rent at Kanhe Phata in Maval, allegedly under a fake name. When they were arrested, ATS had seized several documents, handwritten papers and electronic material like laptop, pen drive, DVD, hard disc from the couple. Alleged secret Maoist communications were reportedly retrieved from the seized electronic devices. Conviction and link to 'Laptop' During the trial, special public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar had referred to alleged CPI-Maoist party documents like the 'Strategic and Tactics of Indian Revolution' and 'Our Work in Urban Areas', seized from the accused. Pawar had told the court that as per the 'secret agenda' stated in the strategy documents of CPI Maoist, Bhelke worked as 'PR (professional revolutionaries)' of the banned group in urban areas, using fake names and procuring fake identity cards. Pawar cited alleged secret letters as per which Bhelke had allegedly sought money from the Maoist party for Kanchan's medical needs and mentioned sending cadres for participating in Maoist activities. Bhelke refuted the allegations. But the court sentenced him to eight years of rigorous imprisonment. He was released in April 2023. Page 60 of the court's judgment has an alleged secret letter from Bhelke, stating, 'Laptop had a meeting with Sandip' and 'Laptop' talking about meeting 'DD'. The court observed that the letter was written in 'coded language' and if the accused was not an active member of a banned outfit, he had no reasons to communicate in such a manner. The police suspect that 'Laptop' in this letter is possibly Prashant Kamble, who was on the run after the arrest of Teltumbde's wife Anjela Sontakke in a 2011 case of spreading CPI (Maoist) work in cities. A police officer said that following Sontakke's arrest, Bhelke replaced her for 'urban work' and after he was nabbed, Kamble is suspected to have moved to Raigad over seven years ago for Maoist activities. The Indian Express had reported how while on the run for 15 years, Kamble appeared in a short film posted on YouTube on March 10, 2018, which identified him as 'Sunil Jagtap Sir', working with children in the tribal areas of Khalapur in Raigad. The police said Kamble procured an Aadhaar card, PAN, voter ID and a passport under the name Sunil Jagtap on a Khalapur address. Kamble's visit to protesting farmers in 2021, besides his trips to different states in India and also to Nepal are being probed by ATS. Chandan Haygunde is an assistant editor with The Indian Express with 15 + years of experience in covering issues related to Crime, Courts, National Security and Human Rights. He has been associated with The Indian Express since 2007. Chandan has done investigative reporting on incidents of terrorism, left wing extremism, espionage cases, wildlife crimes, narcotics racket, cyber crimes and sensational murder cases in Pune and other parts of Maharashtra. While working on the 'Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Fellowship on Tigers, Tiger Habitats and Conservation' in 2012, he reported extensively on the illegal activities in the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. He has done in-depth reporting on the cases related to the Koregaon Bhima violence in Pune and hearings of the 'Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry'. ... Read More
Hindustan Times
03-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Govt hospitals must admit prisoners who need immediate treatment: HC
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has directed all government hospitals across the state to admit prisoners who require immediate medical attention or surgery, without insisting on payment of treatment fees. A division bench of justice Revati Mohite Dere and justice Dr Neela Gokhale passed the order on Wednesday, on a petition filed by Arun Bhelke, arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for allegedly being a Naxalite. The 45-year-old resident of Chandrapur district had approached the high court in 2022, seeking compensation of ₹50 lakh, claiming his wife Kanchan Nanaware, who too was arrested by the ATS, died as an undertrial prisoner due to gross negligence by the jail authorities in providing her proper medical treatment. In his petition, filed through Susan Abraham, Bhelke said that despite a specific recommendation by the Sassoon General Hospital in Pune, his wife was not referred to a super-specialty hospital, and when her condition deteriorated, the jail authorities allowed a very high-risk brain surgery to be performed on her 'without following protocols prescribed under the law and without informing him and/or seeking his consent for the surgery'. The couple was arrested by the ATS in Pune on September 1, 2014, on grounds that they were Naxalites. Bhelke had then brought it to the attention of the authorities that Nanaware had undergone open-heart surgery twice and required continuous medical attention, but jail officials did not pay attention to her medical requirements; neither did they bring her precarious condition to the notice of the courts, whenever her bail applications, on medical grounds, came up for hearing. Bhelke's petition stated that after Nanaware died on January 24, 2021, their advocates had obtained part of her medical records, which showed that Kanchan Nanaware would have lived if not for the way her medical treatment had been mishandled by the jail authorities. It added that although doctors at the Sassoon Hospital had in February 2020, recommended that Nanaware be shifted to a super-specialty hospital, no action was taken. She was taken to a super-specialty hospital several months later, in December, after the high court issued directives to the jail officials. 'A CT scan revealed that she had chronic sub-dural hematoma, which is essentially a collection of blood on the brain's surface under the outer covering of the brain (dura),' said the petition. 'Even at that stage, her life could have been saved if she had been admitted to a super-specialty hospital, but she was instead sent back to jail with the advice that she be immediately referred to a neurosurgeon. Even this medical advice was not complied with, and her condition steadily deteriorated when she complained of constant headaches, vertigo and ataxia,' the petition added. Against this backdrop, Bhelke has sought an independent investigation to identify the persons responsible for negligence in treating his wife and for appropriate civil and criminal action against them. He has also sought orders to the state to reveal their policy regarding entitlements of prisoners to basic living conditions such as minimum living area, including extent and nature of outside activities, diet, particularly for the sick, as well as medical care, both in-house and in emergency situations. The court has posted the petition for further hearing to June 18.
