Elgaar Parishad probe: CJI Dipak Misra asks petitioner to present case at 3:45 pm

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra told the petitioner of the activists — arrested after the multi-city raids over allegations of links to Maoists — to present their case at 3:45 pm on Wednesday. The petition has been filed by eminent historian Romila Thapar and will be presented by the senior lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan and some others in the Supreme Court.

Pune police in a multi-city raid have arrested five people — Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, activists Arun Fereira, Gautam Navlakha and Vernon Gonsalves — for their alleged connection with the violence at Koregaon Bhima in Maharashtra on January 1, when Dalits had clashed with upper-caste Marathas. The police carried out raids at Delhi, Faridabad, Goa, Mumbai, Ranchi and Hyderabad, reports NDTV.

After hearing the petition of the Maharashtra police, Faridabad Chief Judicial Magistrate granted transit remand of human rights lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj on Tuesday. However, Punjab and Haryana High Court had earlier issued a stay order for three days.

Other than the five activists arrested, four others’ houses were raided too following the questioning of five arrested people in June. They include — Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson and Shoma Sen. These people were arrested for their alleged ‘provocative’ speeches at ‘Elgar Parishad’, which supposedly triggered violence in Bhima Koregaon a day later.

Among the activists arrested, Varavara Rao’s name cropped up for his alleged involvement in a Maoist plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reports the news website. Police say that he was arrested after they saw Rao’s name in a letter seized during searches at the premises of one of the five people arrested in June in connection with ‘Elgar Parishad’.

Calling this a situation of ‘undeclared emergency’, renowned authors and social activists Arundhati Roy, Nandini Sundar, Ramchandra Guha, Shekhar Gupta and Teesta Setlawad condemned the action of the government. They were of the opinion that the State is trying to silence the voices raising against them.

ALSO READ: Bhima Koregaon caste violence row: Activists arrested from across the country