War and Peace: Bombay HC didn't refer to Tolstoy's book but that of Biswajit Roy

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that during the trial of Bhima Koregaon violence case accused Vernon Gonsalves on Wednesday, it did not refer to the literary classic 'War and Peace' by Leo Tolstoy but a book called 'War and Peace in Junglemahal' by Biswajit Roy, a Kolkata-based journalist.

The court said that it was "shocked and hurt" to learn about the media reports stating that it has raised a question over Tolstoy's book 'War and Peace.'

It was widely reported on Wednesday that the single judge bench of Justice Sarang Kotwal of Bombay HC had observed that "how can the accused in Bhima Koregaon violence Gonsalves can have a book like 'War and Peace' at his home."

During the proceedings in the court today, lawyer Yug Chaudhary, who was appearing for Sudha Bhardwaj, another accused in Bhima Koregaon case, brought this online criticism to the court's notice and informed the judge that his observations have been misquoted.

Chaudhary told the court that according to him those observations were not for Tolstoy's book but for another book of the almost similar name "WAR and PEACE IN JUNGLEMAHAL: PEOPLE, STATE and MAOISTS," which was in the seizure 'punchnama' of the articles seized from Gonsalves' residence during the raids of Pune Police.

Speaking to , Chaudhary said that he brought this matter to the court in today's proceedings.

"I brought this matter to the court's notice today as it was completely misquoted and Justice Sarang was hurt. It was clear from the list of seized items recorded in the 'punchnama' that which book was referred to by the judge yesterday. This should have been reported responsibly," he said.

( With inputs from ANI )