Varavara Rao, others were part of banned CPI (Maoists), could have caused chaos

New Delhi, Sep 5: The arrest of the five activists, alleged to be close to naxalites was not based on a dissenting view or difference in their political views and ideologies, the Maharashtra government said in its response to the Supreme Court.

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

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.

The activists were not just involved in planing and preparing for violence, but were in the process of creating large scale violence, destruction of property, the reply further said.

The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the house arrest of all these persons. Hearing on the matter would continue on September 6.