Activists arrests: Supreme Court reserves order, fixes next hearing date as September 24

The Supreme Court reserved its plea on the arrests of five activists in the Bhima Koregaon case and ordered the Maharashtra Police to file their case diary pertaining to the ongoing investigation in the case by September 24. The apex court also asked the petitioner — historian Romila Thapar and others — to file their written submissions by then.

Hearing the concluding submissions made by both the parties and reserved the order for next week. From the activists’ side, concluding submissions were made by senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Harish Salve, while Maharashtra Police was represented by Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. The bench was headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and other members of the panel include Justices A M Khaniwlkar and D Y Chandrachud.

Seeking an immediate release of the five activists, historian Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala had demanded a SIT probe for the case. However, Maharashtra Police has been strict with their declaration that they have ample proof to justify their case.

The Maharashtra Police have arrested five rights activists — Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha — on August 29 alleging that these people were involved in inciting the Bhima-Koregaon violence in January this year. Police have also seized their documents and gadgets, claiming that these accused were even trying to plan the assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The activists are currently under house arrests, until further hearing.

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