A court directed the Pune Police to send three activists, arrested for suspected links to Maoists, back to their homes, after the Supreme Court ordered that they be kept under house arrest till September 6.

Police detain activists during a protest against arrest of revolutionary writer Varavara Rao

Pune:

The Supreme Court has ordered that the five activists, arrested in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case, be kept under house arrest, observing that dissent was the "safety valve" of democracy.

District and sessions judge KD Vadhane here ordered police to send Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira back to their residences, where they will be kept under 'house arrest'.

The three activists, along with Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha, were arrested yesterday.

While trade unionist and lawyer Bharadwaj is confined to her home in Faridabad and civil liberties activist Navlakha to his Delhi residence, Telugu poet Rao and activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were brought to Pune late last night.

As the apex court stayed the transit remand of Navlakha and Bharadwaj, the Police could produce only Rao, Gonsalves and Ferreira in Pune court today.

Public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar sought 14 days' custody for the trio.

Judge Vadhane, after receiving the apex court's directions, ordered the Pune police to send all three to their respective cities and put them under "house arrest" till further directions.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Shivaji Pawar said arrangements will be made to send the three back to their respective cities. They may be sent back by tomorrow, another official said.

The Pune police had arrested the five activists in connection with an FIR lodged after the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave held in Pune on December 31 last year that had triggered violence at Bhima-Koregaon village.

Earlier, during the arguments in the court, the prosecution claimed that the accused were planning to "wage a war" against the country and were involved in procuring arms, funding Naxal activities and recruiting students from reputed educational institutes.

Prosecutor Pawar said that Rao, Gonsalves and Ferreira were active members of the banned CPI (Maoists), and submitted some letters, seized earlier, that mention the three men.

Citing one of the letters, Pawar said Rao raised funds for the Naxals and was also involved in procuring arms.

One of the seized letters showed that Rao was the only authorised person to speak to Maoist activists in Manipur and Nepal to facilitate import of weapons, she said.

Another letter said that Maoists were facing heavy casualties, and Rao and Surendra Gadling (arrested in June) pressed for inflicting heavy damage on the security forces as a revenge, she said.

"One of the letters which has a mention of Ferreira states the need of recruiting 'professional revolutionaries' and for that these accused were targeting reputed institutes like Tata Institute of Social Science and other," she said.

"The anti-fascist front floated by CPI (Maoists) is trying to spread its wings in different parts of the country to incite people to revolt against the present government.

"The Elgar Parishad held in Pune on December 31 was organised ...to mobilise the Dalit community against the government," Pawar contended.

The seized letters also showed connection of the Maoists with other banned organisations including some operating in Jammu and Kashmir, she said.

Defence Counsels Rohan Nahar and Shahid Akhtar argued that the sections evoked under the UAPA were not applicable as police had not proved the accused persons' link with the Koregaon Bhima violence.