Bombay HC didn't refer to Tolstoy's work, but another book

In a dramatic turn of events, it has now emerged that the book the Bombay High Court referred to during the hearing of the Bhima-Koregaon case on Wednesday was not Leo Tolstoy's classic "War and Peace" but the similar-sounding "War and Peace in Junglemahal", edited by Biswajit Roy.

Lawyer Yug Chaudhary, appearing for one of the accused, on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that sections of the media (not IANS) had wrongly reported on the court raising objections to accused Vernon Gonsalves for keeping a copy of "War and Peace".

"The book recovered from Gonsalves is 'War and Peace in Junglemahal: People, State and Maoists', edited by Biswajit Roy, not the 'War and Peace' by Leo Tolstoy," Chaudhary told the court.

In response, Justice S. Kotwal, to whom the statements were attributed by some sections of the media (not IANS), responded that he was "shocked" by the reportage and it was disturbing for the institution.

The judge said that he was well aware that Tolstoy's "War and Peace" (1869) was a literary classic and he never intended to suggest that all books seized by the Pune Police during the Bhima-Koregaon and Elgar Parishad investigations were incriminating.

Even Gonsalves' lawyer informed the court that none of the books seized from his client's home were banned by the government. IANS