#BhimaKoregaon: Activists should be put under house arrest, says Supreme Court hearing pleas
New Delhi, Aug 29 (IBNS): The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that five activists, who have been arrested by the Pune Police over terror charges and for inciting violence in January this year at Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra, triggering a wave of protests by critics of the BJP government, should be kept under house arrest till Sept 6.
The direction was given by the five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra while hearing the pleas challenging the arrest of the five activists.
The SC has intervened& issued notice on a petition by Romila Thapar&Ors challenging the malafide raids &arrests of Frontline Human Rights activists& lawyers including Sudha Bharadwaj& Gautam Navlakha. Next date is 6th Sept.Till then they can be detained in their homes not in jail
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) August 29, 2018
The SC also directed the Maharashtra government to file a response to the petition challenging the arrest of five activists.
During the hearing, the apex court observed, 'dissent is the safety valve of democracy. If dissent is not allowed then the pressure cooker may burst'.
Activist-lawyer Prashant Bushan told media: "The court said the activists should not be taken to custody. They can be kept under House arrest."
"The next hearing in the case will be held on Sept 6." Bhushan said.
The petitioners, including historian Romila Thapar, want the arrest of the activists should be put on hold.
Several rights activists, including Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, were arrested by Pune Police in multi-city raids on Tuesday in connection with the Dalit-upper caste violence in Bhima Koregaon in January this year, triggering strong reactions from the critics of the BJP-led government at the centre.
The raids were carried out in several cities like Delhi, Faridabad, Goa, Mumbai, Ranchi and Hyderabad.
The arrested activists are poet and writer Varavara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, activists Arun Fereira, Gautam Navlakha and Vernon Gonsalves.
Meanwhile, on social media the exprerssion "MeTooUrbanNaxal" and "UrbanNaxals" trended as many protesting the arrests took to Twitter to express their anger.
4,700 prominent citizens have signed the joint statement calling for the release of @Sudhabharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao & Vernon Gonsalves. We are compiling all the signatures and adding them to the statement.
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) August 29, 2018
Suna, @narendramodi ji?https://t.co/FIGEuAdaTw
Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri on the other hand asked some “bright young minds” to put together a list of those defending “Urban Naxals”.
I want some bright young people to make a list of all those who are defending #UrbanNaxals Let’s see where it leads. If you want to volunteer with commitment, pl DM me. @squintneon would you like to take the lead?
— Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) August 28, 2018
For those who know #UrbanNaxals are a threat to India.
— Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) August 29, 2018
And for those who don’t believe.
This is the only document you need to read.
This is written by #UrbanNaxals themselves. pic.twitter.com/oaVoEzXg7I
He was immediately slammed by the rival groups supporting the activists who were arrested.
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