Within hours after a Pune special court on Friday rejected their bail applications, the Pune police on Friday evening arrested civic rights activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, while the investigators are likely to arrest another activist Sudha Bharadwaj from her Faridabad residence for her alleged links with the CPI (Maoists).
Gonsalves, Ferriera and Bhardwaj who were among the five activists arrested on August 28 for their alleged links with the CPI (Maoists) and their association with the Elaagar Parishad held in Pune ahead of the January 1, 2018 Bhima-Koregaon riots.
While Gonsalves was arrested from his Mumbai residence, Ferreira was taken into custody by the police from his Thane residence.
Gonsalves and Ferreira will be produced in the Pune UAPA court on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a police team is leaving for Faridabad where Bhardwaj is likely to be arrested from her home on Saturday.
Earlier in the afternoon, Additional sessions judge K.D. Vadane had rejected the bail applications of the three activists.
"At this stage, from material collected by investigating officer, prima facie, it reveals the involvement of the present applicants/accused. Moreover, investigation is at very crucial stage, therefore, in my view, the present accused are not entitled to be released on bail. Hence applications devoid of merit, liable to be rejected," Special Judge Vadane stated in his order.
While under house arrest, the three activists had moved the Pune sessions court seeking an extension of their house arrest by a week.
While opposing the bail applications, the Prosecution had argued that it have “corroborative evidence” against the accused to prove their alleged role in Maoist activities likes mobilising cadres, recruiting students from eminent institutions and sending them to the hinterland areas to become “professional revolutionaries”, raise funds and procure weapons.
Since the house arrest period ended on Friday, Gonsalves’ lawyer Rahul Deshmukh said that the three activists would move the Bombay High Court on against the Pune court’s order.
Apart from Bharadwaj, Ferreira and Gonsalves, activists Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha had been arrested on August 28.
Earlier this week, the Hyderabad High Court had extended Rao’s house arrest period by three weeks while Navlakha’s arrest was quashed by the Delhi High Court. Later, the Supreme Court rejected the Maharashtra Government's special leave petition against the Delhi High Court order.
The rejection of bail pleas of three activists, including Bhardwaj and Gonsalves comes two days after the Bombay High Court quashed a special courts order granting an extension of 90 days to the police to file a charge-sheet against five persons arrested on June 6 in connection with their alleged Maoist links and their role in the January 1, 2018 Bhima-Koregaon riots.
However, upon a plea by the Prosecution that it wanted to test legality of the the high court’s order in the Supreme Court, a single-judge HC bench of Justice Mridula Bhatkar stayed till November 1 2018 the implementation of her order quashing the Pune special court’s order to facilitate the Maharashtra Government to challenge the HC order in the apex court.
While quashing the Pune Special court’s order, the high court took cognisance of the fact that there was no compliance of section 43-D of the of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 which mandates the Public Prosecutor to submit a report justifying the extension of time for filing the charge-sheet in the case.
“This shows that the Investigating Officer has navigated the application for extension of period by further 90 days, which is not contemplated under the provison to section 43-D of the Act. It is to be remembered that the Investigating Officer is always interested in the success or the conviction in the case. However, it is the duty of the Public Prosecutor to assist the Court in the process of administration of justice by upholding the law,” Justice Bhatkar noted.
Quoting the judgment in the case Hitendra Vishnu Thakur vs. State of Maharashtra (supra) case, the judge noted: “....The request of an investigating officer for extension of time is no substitute for the report of the public prosecutor. ….”
On September 2, a Special Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) court had granted an extension of 90 days to the police to file a charge-sheet against five persons with alleged Maoist links who were arrested in June this year in connection with the Elgaar Parishad held in Pune and the subsequent January 1, 2018 Bhima-Koregaon caste riots.