The Bombay High Court on Monday pulled up the Maharashtra Police for holding a press conference, alleging that the five arrested rights activists had Maoist connections and elaborating on the evidence in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case.
A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Mridula Bhatkar questioned how the police could read out such documents which may be used as evidence in the case.
“How can the police do this? The matter is sub-judice. When the Supreme Court is seized of the matter then revealing information is wrong,” Justice Bhatkar said.
The HC bench was hearing a petition filed on Friday by one Satish Gaikwad, who claims to be a victim of the Koregaon Bhima violence. He sought a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the case.
In his petition, Gaikwad urged the High Court to restrain the Pune Police from further probing the case, and stay the investigation. The bench posted the petition for further hearing on September 7.
The Pune Police on Tuesday arrested P Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves and conducted raids at eight locations in Maharashtra, Goa, Telangana, Delhi and Jharkhand.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court halted the police’s request of immediate custody and ordered that they be kept under house arrest till September 6.
With PTI inputs