Bhima Koregaon case: SC extends house arrest of rights activists to Sept 17

WIO News: The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended to September 17 the house arrest of the five rights activists arrested last month for their alleged connections to Maoists.
The five activists include the lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, the journalist Gautam Navlakha, the poet Varavara Rao, the former professor Vernon Gonsalaves, and the lawyer and human rights activist Arun Ferreira.
The five of them were arrested on August 28 after the Maharashtra Police carried out raids in at least five states.
A day after their arrests however, the Supreme Court — acting on a petition filed by the historian Romila Thapar and others — ordered that the activists were to only be kept under house arrest.
“Dissent is the safety valve of democracy,” the court said then. “If dissent is not allowed, then the pressure cooker may burst,” the court added.
The Supreme Court later also took umbrage at the Maharashtra Police divulging details of the case to the press while the matter was subjudice. The police had held a press conference.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra took umbrage over the statements given by the Assistant Commissioner of Police of Pune on the matter, saying he was casting aspersions on the court.
The Bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, told the Maharashtra government to make its police officials “more responsible” on matters pending before the court.
The central government has received tremendous amounts of flack over the arrests, with several commentators saying it is stepping down on any and all forms of protest.
The Maharashtra Police have said in court that the arrests were not made because the activists had dissented against the government or had differing opinions from the powers that be but because they were active members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) but had wanted to “destabilise society”.
The Maharashtra Police had arrested the five activists in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave — ‘Elgaar Parishad’ — held on December 31, 2017, that had later triggered violence at Maharashtra’s Koregaon-Bhima village.