Supreme Court orders house arrest of five activists, seeks Maha govt reply

New Delhi/Pune: Observing that dissent is the safety valve of democracy, without which the “pressure cooker will burst,” the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the five activists arrested by the Maharashtra government in relation to Bhima-Koregaon violence be kept under “house arrest” till September 6.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud sought the response of Maharashtra government in the writ petition challenging the arrest of five activists — Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and P. Varavara Rao — for their alleged Maoists links.

The bench, which took up the matter at 4.30 pm as an urgent case, made it clear that the five activists will not be arrested in the meantime, but will be detained at their respective homes until the next hearing date, on September 6.

The petition, moved by Romila Thapar, Devaki Jain, Prabhat Pattnaik, Satish Deshpande and Maja Daruwala on behalf of the activists arrested from Delhi, Faridabad, Mumbai, Thane and Hyderabad, asked the top court to order an independent probe into the Bhima-Koregaon violence earlier this year.

The petition stated that the arrests and raids by Maharashtra police are an exercise to silence dissent, to stop people from helping the downtrodden and marginalised people across the nation and to instil fear in the minds of people. At the outset CJI Misra made it clear that the court will not look into technical objections.

Justice Chandrachud, directing Maharashtra to file a response by September 5, said, “There are wider issues raised by them (petitioners). Concern raised is that you are quelling dissent. Democracy is not safe if you quell dissent and that is what they are worried about.”

He also observed, “Dissent is a safety valve for democracy. If you don’t allow this safety valve, then the pressure cooker will burst. Look the people who are arrested... They are professors, lawyers and activists working for a cause.”

Since the countrywide raids and arrests of human rights activists on Tuesday, including that of Ms Bharadwaj, a US citizen who gave up her citizenship to work as lawyer in India and had been teaching at NLU Delhi, outrage continues to grow.

Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor, said in a tweet on Wednesday, “To arrest activists who have neither committed nor facilitated violence is to betray our democracy. This is not the India that Gandhiji fought to free.”  

Earlier on Wednesday, the National Human Rights Commission sought Maharashtra’s response while observing that it appears that the standard operating procedures were not followed by police in these arrests, which may amount to violation of their human rights.

According to the state government, the arrests were part of an investigation into violence in Bhima-Koregaon on January 1 this year during the bicentennial celebration by dalits of a British era war. Police said the operation was part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad in Pune on December 31, 2017.

Violence broke out the next day, when a Maratha group, objecting to celebrating a British victory, clashed with dalits. It spread across Maharashtra and led to one death.

The Pune police said the arrested activists are linked to Maoist groups and have shown “intolerance to present political system”.

There is “conclusive proof” that they have a nexus with other unlawful groups and deliberate involvement in larger conspiracy. The activists, the police said, were planning to recruit members from 35 colleges and launch attacks.

A battery of senior lawyers led by Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Indira Jaising, Raju Ramachandran, Dushyant Dave, and advocates Vrinda Grover and Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioners, sought the court’s intervention and to consider the manner which the arrests were made nine months after the incident, though the names of the activists did not figure in the FIR.  Mr Singhvi submitted that the arrests and raids were carried out without any basis.

Additional solicitor general Thushar Mehta, appearing for Maharashtra, opposed the petition saying it was filed by strangers and that none of the accused persons were present before the Supreme Court. The ASG also pointed out that high courts were already seized of the matter.

Following the Supreme Court’s order, sessions court at Shivaji Nagar, Pune, directed the police to place under “house arrest” three of the alleged “urban Maoists” arrested on Tuesday.

Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsales and Varavara Rao were produced in the Pune court, where police sought 15-day custody for further interrogation. The police said they would be taken to their homes on Thursday.

In their petition, Romila Thapar and others said the arrest of activists without any credible material is the biggest attack on freedom and liberty of citizens. It also says that the timing of the arrest — nine months after the incident —appears to be motivated to deflect people’s attention from real issues, and prayed for stay of the arrests and an independent probe.

Mr Singhvi argued in Supreme Court that the petition raised a larger issue regarding arbitrary use of arrest to stifle the fundamental liberties of citizens. He also submitted that only two persons — Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha — have approached high courts and their transit remand to be taken to Pune had been stayed. He suggested that all the five be kept in house arrest in their homes till the next date of hearing and the court accepted this.