Bhima Koregaon: Activists’ house arrest extended

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the five accused activists in the Bhima Koregaon case will remain under house arrest until September 17 (Monday). Hearing in the case will resume on the same date.

A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, also agreed to hear certain other pleas filed by other accused persons who were arrested in June this year, along with the present batch of petitions.

The five activists- Sudha Bhardwaj, P. Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, and Vernon Gonsalves- were detained on August 28 from various cities for their alleged involvement in the violence that erupted in Pune in January this year during an event organised to mark 200 years of the Bhima Koregaon battle.

The Maharashtra government, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, had stated that the activists were “members of banned terrorist organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist).”

[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]