‘Why have you kept ‘War And Peace’ book at home,’ Bombay HC asks Vernon Gonsalves in Bhima-Koregaon case

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case accused Vernon Gonsalves to explain why he kept “objectionable material” like a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and some CDs at his home. A single-judge Bench of Justice Sarang Kotwal hearing the bail plea of Mr. Gonsalves and others also said that “such books” and CDs prima facie indicated they contained some material against the State. Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the classic novel about Russia during Napoleonic wars became a point of contention during the day’s hearing after the Pune Police probing the case claimed that the book was part of the “highly incriminating evidence” it had seized from Mr. Gonsalves’ house in Mumbai during raids conducted a year ago. Opposing the bail application, advocate Aruna Pai, who is representing Pune Police, said while police did not find any electronic evidence against Mr. Gonsalves from the computer and hard disk recovered from his house, the raid had yielded “highly incriminating evidence” in the form of “books and CDs with objectionable titles mentioned above“. The judge also said Pune Police too have to do “much explaining” to convince the court that the material found on such CDs and in the books is incriminatory against Mr. Gonsalves.