New Delhi/ Pune: The Pune police's bid for immediate custody of the five human rights activists arrested on Tuesday for alleged "Maoist links" was on Wednesday halted by the Supreme Court, which ordered that they be kept under house arrest till September 6. The interim relief for the five, which spared them the prospect of being sent to jail or police custody for now, came on a day of multiple court battles after the nationwide crackdown on activists.
The Supreme Court's urgent hearing on Wednesday was in response to a plea by historian Romila Thapar and four human right activists against the arrests that sparked outrage from human rights defenders and Opposition leaders. "It (apex court order) is good news. The arrests are a clear case of political witch hunt," said lawyer-activist Hasina Khan.
The Supreme Court questioned Maharashtra Police's move to arrest these activists nine months after the incident and said that all of them were reputed citizens and "stifling the dissent" was not good. "Dissent is the safety valve of democracy and if you don't allow these safety valves, the pressure cooker will burst," the Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said in a packed courtroom.
"Nine months after Bhima-Koregaon, you go and arrest these people," the Bench observed, while taking serious note of Maharashtra's plea that they were arrested in pursuance of an FIR. The Pune police had on Tuesday raided prominent activists in several states and arrested five of them — poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, lawyer and trade unionist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad, civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi and activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai and Chhattisgarh.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Koregaon-Bhima near Pune on December 31, 2017, which had allegedly triggered violence the next day. Shortly after the apex court order, a Pune court directed the city police to send Rao, Ferreira and Gonsalves, who were taken to that city late on Tuesday night, to their homes. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the petitioners, said that the nationwide raids and the arrests made by Maharashtra Police nine months after registration of the FIR have had a "chilling effect" on the personal life and liberty of citizens having dissenting voice.