Week’s breather for rights activists; cops plead case
The Supreme Court on Thursday gave yet another breather of one week to five activists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case on February 28 by extending their house arrest till the next hearing on September 12.
The Maharashtra government, however, wanted the court to throw out the petition filed by five reputed citizens, on the plea that they have no locus in the case; it also wanted the court to allow the custodial interrogation of the activists before their colleagues trigger a spate of violence across the country.
The 3-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, however, pulled up the Maharashtra government for a press conference by the state police where it made public the ‘evidence’ against the activists. It asked the state government to direct its police to be more responsible when the matter is being heard by the court.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi again pleaded for releasing all five, if necessary on bail, and wanted the Supreme Court to appoint a Special Investigation Team for an independent probe into what happened in Bhima Koregaon near Pune on December 31 and January 1.
In its affidavit filed on Wednesday, the Maharashtra police pressed for custody of the five activists for interrogation, saying that keeping these activists under house arrest will hamper the investigation as they were destroying the evidences. In an oblique reference to Justice Chandrachud's remark in the last hearing that "dissent is the safety valve of democracy," the affidavit contended that the activists were not arrested for their dissent against the government but because of proofs of their Maoist links and their plans for large-scale violence.
Justice Chandrachud took umbrage at the police press conference in Mumbai last week and snubbed additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta. "I saw the assistant police commissioner, Pune, insinuating that SC [Supreme Court] should not have intervened at this stage. He has no business telling us that."
Noting that he had watched the press conference carefully, he said the Bench has taken very seriously the "attempt to cast an aspersion and say that the apex court should not have taken up this matter."
The ASG pleaded that the petition filed by noted historian Romila Thapar and four other prominent persons be junked, taking the plea that "third parties have no right to file petition."
He pleaded that law be allowed to take its course as "rushing to Supreme Court in such matters by persons having no locus standi will create a bad precedent." On this assertion, the CJI said this question will be heard on Wednesday.