Urban naxal case: Review seeking SIT probe into arrest of activists rejected by SC

New Delhi, Oct 27: The Supreme Court has rejected a review petition challenging the order that refused an SIT probe into the arrests of five activists said to be close to naxalites.

The review was filed by Romila Thapar, who it may be recalled had sought an early hearing. That plea was rejected as well.

The original petitioner in the case, Romila Thapar had filed a review against the order of Supreme Court, which had refused to hand over the probe into the Bhima-Koregaon violence case to the Special Investigating Team.

Romila Thapar and Devki Jain, Prabhat Patnaik, Satish Deshpande and Maya Daruwala had challenged the arrest of the activists by the Pune Police after raids across five states on August 28.

Meanwhile a Pune court had on Friday rejected the bail applications of Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves. Following this they were taken into custody by the Pune Police for further investigation.

The state police said there was sufficient evidence to "dispel" the claim that they were arrested for their dissenting views. It also questioned the locus of the petitioners, Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociologist Satish Deshpande and legal expert Maja Daruwala, and said they were "strangers" to the investigation in the matter.

Sudha Bhardwaj, P Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, and lawyers and activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves were arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy.

The government said that the cogent evidence has so far shown that these persons are part of banned terrorist organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist). There has been serious criminal offences made out against them and incriminating material has also emerged, the Maharashtra government said.