Bhima Koregaon: SC rejects Romila Thapar's review plea for release of activists

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud dismissed the plea on Friday.
Supreme Court (File | EPS)
Supreme Court (File | EPS)

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 seeking a review of the September 28 majority verdict by which the apex court had refused immediate release of five rights activists held in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud dismissed the plea on Friday. The court order, however, was uploaded 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 five rights activists Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha arrested by the Maharashtra police on August 28.

The activists were arrested in connection with an FIR filed following a conclave 'Elgaar Parishad' held on December 31 last year that had allegedly triggered violence later at Koregaon-Bhima village in Maharashtra. 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 also refused to appoint an SIT to probe their arrest.Rejecting a request to set up a special team, the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the accused do not have a say in deciding which agency should investigate them and told Maharashtra Police to go ahead with the probe.

The lone dissenting judge, Justice D Y Chandrachud, however, questioned the arrest, saying there was a serious allegation that it was to quell dissent.

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