New Delhi: As per the Pune police’s submission in a court that four accused arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence were allegedly involved in planning and executing a lecture series in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. This lecture was organized ‘in memory’ of a Maoist killed in a police encounter to instigate students to join the proscribed CPI (Maoist) outfit.

The court extended the police custody of the four accused — Sudhir Dhavale, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson — till June 21 after they were produced before it.

Seeking their further custody, public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar told additional sessions judge KD Vadhane that enticing students to join the banned organisation is a deep rooted conspiracy, which needs to be investigated as “it is a big threat to national security”.

“A lecture series in memory of slain Maoist Naveen Babu, who was killed in a police encounter, was organised in JNU. It was on the Maoists’ directions that the lecture series was organised on the JNU campus and the event was to instigate, provoke and motivate students to join this banned organisation,” Pawar told the court.

Pawar told the court that the accused were tasked to execute the lecture series plan at the behest of the CPI (Maoist) outfit.

“Documents (seized during the searches) establish that all the accused were involved in anti-national activities. It is very crucial to investigate their role in the execution of the programme and that is why further police custody is necessary,” she said.

She also told the court that funds were provided to the execute “anti-national activities”. “It is revealed that to implement anti-national activities, funds were provided and police have recovered Rs 80,000, during the seizure operation, from Wilson’s house in Delhi,” Pawar said.