NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has rejected a plea seeking relief for five rights activists who were arrested in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case. The top court’s order came on a petition filed by historian Romila Thapar who sought a review of the September 28 majority verdict by which the apex court had refused immediate release of the five activists.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud dismissed the plea on Friday. But, the court order on Saturday. “We have perused the review petition as well as the grounds in support thereof. In our opinion, no case for review of judgment dated September 28, 2018 is made out. The review petition is accordingly dismissed,” the bench said.
On September 28, the court rejected a plea for immediate release of the activists. The five were arrested in connection with an FIR filed following a conclave ‘Elgaar Parishad’ held on December 31 last year that allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village. They were put under house arrest on August 29. On September 28, the court said the accused will remain under house arrest for four more weeks.
By a majority verdict of 2:1, it had refused to appoint an SIT to probe their arrest. The three-judge SC bench said the accused do not have a say in deciding which agency should probe them. It told the Maharashtra Police to go ahead with the probe.