Arun Ferreira detained after raid at Thane home over Bhima-Koregaon riots

Residents were surprised to hear about the raid and Ferreira's detention from Sharon society

Early On Tuesday morning, the Pune police raided the Thane residence of activist Arun Ferreira and detained him the same afternoon. The 10-hour raid was in connection with the caste clash at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune. The raid took place as early as 5 am, with the support of the Thane police, and the Pune cops seized Ferreira's gadgets and books.

Ferreira lives in Thane's Sharon society with his wife and mother-in-law. Thane Nagar police officers said they were informed about the raid by the Pune crime branch around 4.30 am.

The flat is registered in Ferreira's wife and mother-in-law's names

According to sources, the Pune police seized a laptop, along with four pen drives in which they found some videos of speeches. Ferreira's scripts and books were also seized. Ferreira told this reporter, "I have been detained after such a long search, and I don't even know what they will find in the books and journals they seized from my house. Clearly, this is a plot against human rights activists."

Neighbours shocked
Society residents were shocked by the developments, as they hadn't found anything suspicious about the family. D Bhosale, the building watchman, said, "At 5 am, the officers entered our building and they were inside Ferreira's flat till 3 pm. No one knew what was happening except for the building chairman. The Ferreira family seemed decent; I don't know why the police arrested him."

Mahesh Kenya, chairman of the building, said, "We don't know exactly what happened. We just knew that police came and took Ferreria, and his family went along with him."

Ravikant Malekar, senior PI at the Thane Nagar police station, said, "We don't know anything about the investigation; we just supported the Pune police as they were working in our jurisdiction."

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