Amnesty International, a rights group, has urged the Centre to protect freedoms instead of "creating an atmosphere of fear", in response to arrests made across India in connection with the Bhima Koreagaon investigation.
"The Maharashtra police have launched raids on rights activists across the country," Amnesty India said. "This crackdown raises disturbing questions about whether these people are being targeted for their activism."
The central government, it said, "should protect people's rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly".
News reports are coming in of a police crackdown on advocates and rights activists across the country. pic.twitter.com/n3MZ4gIVLH
Amnesty India (@AIIndia) August 28, 2018
The police have raided homes of prominent activists and lawyers in connection with the investigation into alleged Maoist involvement in Elgaar Parishad, an event organised in Pune on December 31, 2017. Sources said speeches made at this event triggered the violence in Bhima Koregaon the following day.
Five people have been arrested in multiple locations: the human rights activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha, the writer and activist P Varavara Rao, the activists Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, and Stan Swamy, and the civil rights lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj.
The home of Anand Teltumbde, a civil rights activist, was searched in Goa.
Amnesty also said the five people who were arrested in June in connection with the violence in Bhima Koregaon "have a history of working to protect the rights of some of Indias most marginalized people".
Inputs from Munish Chandra Pandey
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