Bhima Koregaon case: SC extends house arrest of activists; next hearing on Sept 19
New Delhi, Sept 17 (IBNS): The Supreme Court on Monday extended the house arrest of five activities, who were earlier detained in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence that erupted in early January near Pune, media reports said.
The court was hearing a petition that challenged the arrests of these activists by the Maharashtra Police.
The next hearing will be held on Sept 19.
On Aug 28, the Pune Police raided the homes of 10 human rights activists across the country and arrested five of them.
The five activists, who were alleged to have a Maoist link, are Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao and Sudha Bharadwaj.
The following day, the Supreme Court ordered that they be placed under house arrest until September 6 though it observed that . “Dissent is the safety valve of democracy,"
The house arrest was initially extended till Sept 12, when the hearing was about to take place. However, the hearing was deferred till Monday.
The court also came down heavily on the police for briefing the media even when the case was sub-judice.
The court passed the order after historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpandey and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala filed a petition seeking the immediate release of the activists and an independent investigation into the allegedly arbitrary arrests.
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