The Pune police claim to have unearthed a letter that proves that Maoist funding was behind the Bhima Koregaon riots. mid-day has a copy of the letter, which also mentions an alleged nexus between wanted Maoists, the Congress, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewani, JNU student leader Umar Khalid and Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar to incite Dalit unrest and "take down the Modi juggernaut in 2019".

The letter is among several other documents the police said they had found in raids that led to the arrest on Wednesday of five Dalit activists who had organised the Elgar Parishad to mark the 200th anniversary of Bhima Koregaon battle. The letter, typed in English, is addressed to Rona from Comrade M (suspected to be wanted Maoist Milind Teltumbade). It states: "The Bhima Koregaon agitation has been very effective. The unfortunate death of a youth must be exploited to prepare future agitations and propaganda material."