Mumbai, Jan 11 (IANS) After getting bail following a four-year stay in jai, Mumbai resident Arun Ferreira Wednesday claimed that he was “innocent” and the charges of his being a Maoist were baseless.

“The charges that I am a Maoist are completely false and baseless. I am innocent,” he told reporters here, a week after he was released on bail from Nagpur Central Jail.

Ferreira, who is a resident of the upmarket Bandra suburb, admitted that he was a left wing activist but reacted guardedly by saying that “any peoples’ movement cannot be written off”.

“It is sad that so many innocent people continue to languish in jails. While in jail, I had compiled a list of around 27 inmates, excluding me, who were released on bail or acquitted. However, they were again picked up in other cases as soon as they stepped out of jail,” Ferreira said.

“I was physically tortured, slapped and hit all along. The state has learned the technique of making people suffer but there are no marks on the bodies, so the doctors never gave negative reports,” he contended.

In May 2007, Ferreira was arrested and accused of being part of a Maoist plot to blow up Deekshabhoomi, the memorial of B.R. Ambedkar, in Nagpur.

He was slapped with a total of 10 criminal cases.