Pune police on Wednesday had to face major embarrassment in Shivajinagar court as the sessions and district judge ordered police to sent three arrested activists back to their residences where they will be kept under house arrest. The local court's decision came in the light of the Supreme Court's direction to keep five arrested activists under house arrest till September 6.
Pune police had on Tuesday raided the homes of prominent human rights activists in several states and arrested five of them -- poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Thane, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi.
The police had brought Rao, Gonsalves and Ferreira to Pune after they were arrested from their respective cities. They were produced before the court where the public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar argued for nearly two hours where she sought 14 days police custody of the three arrested persons.
While the argument was going on in the Shivajinagar court over the custody of the three arrested persons, the Supreme Court's direction to send them back their residences for house arrest came as a major relief for them. As per the Supreme Court's direction, the sessions and district judge KD Vadhne directed Pune police to take all the three of them back to their houses.
Now all the three persons are likely to be taken back to their residences by Thursday. Pune police along with the local police will be keeping watch on them. Pune police will be filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court on September 5 on their action.
While Bharadwaj is confined to her home in Faridabad and Navlakha to his Delhi residence.
