Supreme Court verdict on activists’ arrest powers Amit Shah’s attack on Congress

BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday tore into the Congress after the Supreme Court ruled that there was prima facie evidence that five rights activists have links to a banned Maoist group and were not arrested for their dissenting views.

“There is only one place for idiocy and it’s called the Congress. Support ‘Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang’, Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements. Defame all those who are honest and working,” Shah tweeted.

The court, however, said the lawyer and trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj, Telugu poet P Varavara Rao, activist Gautam Navlakha, and lawyers Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves will remain under house arrest for more four weeks and can seek bail

Shah also asked the Congress to clear its stand on urban Naxalism.

Those who stooped down to the level of polticising an issue of national security have been exposed by the Honourable Supreme Court's decision today. 

It is high time that the Congress now clears it's stand on this critical issue of Urban Naxalism.

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) September 28, 2018

In a countrywide crackdown on August 28, the Maharashtra police arrested poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha in Delhi for suspected Maoist links.

The police raids were part of a probe into a conclave—Elgar Parishad—held in Koregaon-Bhima near Pune on December 31, 2017 which had allegedly triggered violence the next day.

Following the arrest, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had accused the BJP-led government of jailing activists.

“There is only place for one NGO in India and it’s called the RSS. Shut down all other NGOs. Jail all activists and shoot those that complain,” he had tweeted.

First Published: Sep 28, 2018 15:28 IST