Moga convention wasn’t funded by activist: Left body

Tribune News Service

Moga, September 3

The Lok Sangram Manch, a local sister organisation of Left-wing parties, on Monday refuted the Maharashtra police’s allegations that it had received Rs 50,000 from human rights activist Sudha Bharadwaj to organise a national convention here in July 2017.

The police had recently arrested Bharadwaj and four other activists — Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao and Gautam Navalakha. However, the Supreme Court later ordered that they should be kept under house arrest till September 6.

Manch general secretary Balwant Singh Makhu told The Tribune that only Rs 10,000 was spent on the convention. “The amount was collected by manch members at the local level. No funds were received from Sudha Bharadwaj,” he claimed.

He said the arrests were part of a deep-rooted conspiracy of the NDA government to suppress the voice of the people. “Several intellectuals have been killed in the past four years. Now, they are registering false cases against others,” he alleged.