More than five years after being arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case for alleged Maoist links, Ramesh Gaichor (41) and Sagar Gorkhe (37), both members of the Pune-based cultural group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), were granted bail by the Bombay High Court (HC) on Friday.
The KKM is one of the groups that organized the Elgaar Parishad conclave at Shaniwar Wada in Pune city on December 31, 2017, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima. The next day, widespread violence was reported in the Koregaon Bhima area of Pune district, in which one person was killed and several others injured.
In January 2018, a case was lodged against some organizers of Elgaar Parishad at Vishrambag police station in Pune. Initially investigated by the Pune city police, the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in January 2020.
Investigators alleged that Elgaar Parishad received funds from the banned CPI-Maoist and that speeches delivered at the conclave along with earlier campaigns for the event were among the factors that allegedly led to the violence in Koregaon Bhima.
A total of 16 people were arrested in this case under sections IPC and UAPA. Following the arrest of KKM artists Gorkhe, Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap from Pune in September 2020, the NIA had issued a press release stating that the three accused “were propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and were complicit in conspiracy with other arrested accused. It has also come on record that the arrested accused were in touch with fugitive accused Milind Teltumbde (central committee member CPI Maoist shot dead by Gadchiroli) policeman in November 2021) over CPI (Maoist) urban network.
“It is also established that during their visits to the jungle, they received training on weapons and explosives and awareness programs on various issues related to the Maoist movement,” the press release stated.
After an additional charge sheet was filed against them, an NIA press release claimed that Gorkhe, Gaichor and Jagtap attended meetings of the Elgaar Parishad organization with other co-accused “as part of a well-marked conspiracy. They propagated the CPI-Maoist agenda” and planned and coordinated across Maharashtra.
Story continues below this ad.
KKM condemned the arrests calling it a “false case” and an attempt to protect Hindutva leaders Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote, who they claim are to blame for the Koregaon Bhima violence. Bhide and Ekbote were booked in another case related to the Koregaon Bhima violence with the Pune rural police.
The Supreme Court granted Jyoti bail in November 2025. Investigators say KKM was formed after the 2002 Gujarat riots to promote unity through cultural and musical programmes, but the group was later kidnapped by Maoist agents. The KKM was included in the list of “active front organizations of the CPI (Maoist)” presented in the Lok Sabha in February 2014 by the then Minister of State for Home Affairs of the UPA government, RPN Singh.
The previous case
Police said Gorkhe and Gaichor were arrested in the past also in a UAPA case filed by the Maharashtra ATS in 2011 against 14 people, including Milind Teltumbde and his wife Anjelo Sontakke, for allegedly spreading CPI Maoist activities in urban areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
According to the ATS investigation, Gaichor and Gorkhe were among those who allegedly attended the 15-day Naxal training camp organized in Pune by Teltumbde in 2010. The ATS had arrested the accused Sheetal Sathe, Sachin Mali, Gorkhe and Gaichor, after they surrendered in Bombayby staging “satyagraha” and singing “revolutionary songs” in 2013.
Story continues below this ad.
The ATS chargesheet alleged that the accused KKM artists engaged in armed training with around 150 Naxals in jungle areas of Gondia, Gadchiroli, between November 2011 and April 20212, while they were on the run.
All of the defendants denied the allegations and were subsequently released on bail. While the 2011 case is still pending in a Mumbai court, in May last year, the ATS arrested a KKM member and wanted accused Prashant Kamble alias Laptop, who had been missing since 2010. Investigators recovered from a Aadhaar CardPan card, voter card and passport with a fake name “Sunil Jagtap”, which Kamble allegedly obtained while working with tribal children in Raigad. Another KKM member, Santosh Shelar alias Painter, who had also allegedly joined the armed Maoist movement with Kamble, was arrested in January 2024.