Bhima Koregaon case: Activists Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves arrested by Pune police

Activists Arun and Vernon, who were under house arrest since August 28, were on Friday arrested by Pune Police in connection to Bhima Koregaon case. 

Pune Sessions court on Friday rejected bail plea for three activists - Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj and Vernon Gonsalves.

The Bombay High Court refused to extend house arrest for Arun and Vernon, following which Vernon was arrested from Mumbai and Arun was arrested from Maharashtra's Thane.  

The defence had moved an application before Pune Session Court seeking an extension of house arrest for seven days for Gonsalves and Ferreira since their house arrest ended today.

The Special Judge of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act Court, K.D. Vadane, passed a common order declining the bail applications of Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon S. Gonsalves and Arun T. Ferreira in the case filed by the Vishramgbaug police station here.

The three were under house arrest as per an earlier Supreme Court order.

Bombay High Court on Friday also adjourned Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde's plea seeking rejection of FIR in Bhima Koregaon case till November 1. 

Interim protection will be provided to Navlakha till November 1. 

Earlier on Thursday, Hyderabad High Court had extended the house arrest for activist Varavara Rao for three weeks.

During the investigations into the Koregaon-Bhima riots, the Pune Police had raided and arrested five accused including Bharadwaj, Gonsalves, Ferreira, Gautam Navlakha (now released) and P. Varavara Rao (currently in house arrest in Hyderabad).

Earlier in June, the Pune Police had nabbed activists Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut and Rana Jacob in the Koregaon-Bhima case.

Besides the Koregaon-Bhima violence, the police claimed that they harboured links with Maoist terror groups, were allegedly planning to carry out high-level political assassinations in a Rajiv Gandhi-style operation and incite disturbances in the country to topple the government.

(With Agency Inputs)