The National Investigation Agency inquiring into the Bhima Koregaon case in Maharashtra has arrested Delhi University professor Hany Babu on Tuesday.

He was being questioned at the NIA’s Mumbai office since Thursday, 23 July.

According to the sources, NIA said that they have found a ‘hidden folder’ in his computer (that was seized in 2019 September in the raid at his residence) which has letters that Maoists had exchanged. Babu denied that NIA wanted him to name someone else who might have put it there. Babu refused to accept this fabrication all these days. Jenny Rowena, Babu’s wife, and a faculty at Delhi University got a call from NIA hours ago saying that Babu has been arrested and that the hidden folder in his computer made him a Maoist.

On 12 July, NIA had summoned professor Babu to appear before it in Mumbai. The summons was delivered to him by an officer to his residence in Noida.

In 2019 September, 20 officers of the Pune Police conducted searches at the residence of Hany Babu in Noida, in connection with the same case and seized his laptop and mobile phone.

Babu is the 12th person to be arrested in the Elgar Parishad case. Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferreira, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Vernon Gonsalves, Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha were arrested earlier in the same case and all are in jail now.

By the end of this #BhimaKoregaon case: first 5, then 9, then 11, now 12, we’ll be demanding the release of 100 activists. This case is like some boiling soup pot into which the state is throwing anyone who has spoken out. Hany Babu spoke about the release of BK11, he’s arrested.— meena kandasamy || இளவேனில் மீனா கந்தசாமி (@meenakandasamy) July 28, 2020

Professor Hany Babu who teaches in the English department of the university is a noted anti-caste activist and a staunch proponent of social justice.

Being the coordinator of the ‘Alliance of Social Justice’ and a member of the ‘Joint Action Front for Democratic Education’, he has extensively worked to ensure justice and democracy in higher educational institutions.