Apex court may set up SIT if proof ‘cooked up’
NEWDELHI:The Supreme Court on Monday said it would look into the evidence against five activists arrested in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence this January before taking a decision on setting up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the matter, even as the Centre opposed the court’s intention to entertain the petition in the first place.
Activists Vara Vara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navalakha were arrested from different cities during simultaneous raids by the Maharashtra police on August 28 for allegedly having links with banned Maoist organisations.
The petitioners before the top court — historian Romila Thapar, Devki Jain, Prabhat Patnaik, Satish Deshpande and Maya Daruwala — have contended that the arrests were an attempt to muzzle dissent. The Maharashtra police have refuted the allegations, saying there is sufficient evidence to prove the criminal involvement of the five activists.
The SC placed the five under house arrest on August 29, and extended its interim order to September 19 after the hearing remained inconclusive Monday.
Additional solicitor general Maninder Singh, appearing for the Centre, asked the bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to desist from dealing with the petition. Singh said that Naxalism is a “serious problem” and not restricted to Maharashtra alone. Entertaining the petition would set a “dangerous precedent”, he added.
On being pressed by the petitioner’s lawyer, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, to order an independent probe into the incident and arrests, the CJI said: “As far as your liberty is concerned, we are very serious. We have protected you. For the rest, we will have to look into the material.”
The CJI added: “First of all, we have to examine the material placed before us. If we find that the material is cooked up, we will order an SIT or quash the case.”
Before the court began hearing Singhvi, additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta raised objection to the maintainability of the petition and said criminal law did not permit a third party to intervene, and that the petitioners did not have any locus standi in the matter. He said the court must look into the evidence the state police has gathered against the activists. He also said the arrested activists had already invoked the jurisdiction of appropriate courts, who should be left to deal with the matter.
Mehta was supported by Singh, who questioned the propriety of the procedure followed by the petitioners. He said the issues should have been dealt by the lower courts, and not the Supreme Court, since the matter is still under investigation.
The Maharashtra police say the arrests were part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad in Pune on December 31, 2017, when various activists and Dalit organisations came together.