India: Rights Activist Sudha Bharadwaj, Sent to Police Custody
Event- Country
- India
- Initial Date
- Oct 26, 2018
- Event Description
The Pune Sessions Court on Saturday sent human rights activist Sudha Bharadwaj to police custody until November 6 in the Bhima Koregaon case, ANI reported. The Maharashtra Police took her into custody from her residence in Haryana's Faridabad city. Public Prosecutor Ujwala Pawar asked the court to send Bharadwaj to 14 days in police custody, ANI reported. "She is the active member of Communist Party of India (Maoist), so the activities she has conducted or is conducting for a banned organisation needs to be investigated," Pawar said. The police reached her residence after midnight on Saturday, hours after a special court in Pune rejected her bail plea along with those of activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, The Hindu reported. The police could not take her into custody then as the law does not permit the arrest of women after sunset, said Bharadwaj's counsel Shalini Gera. Bharadwaj's lawyer submitted a plea to the Pune Sessions Court requesting that "the applicant be provided with condition of incarceration, bathing and toilet facilities[in police custody] which are on par with those that have been promised to fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya", ANI reported. On Saturday, a Pune Session Court sent Gonsalves and Ferreira to police custody till November 6, a day after they were arrested in Mumbai. Ferreira, Gonsalves, Bharadwaj, Navlakha, and Varavara Rao were arrested on August 28 for their alleged involvement in an event that preceded the violence at Bhima Koregaon near Pune on January 1. On Thursday, a Hyderabad court extended the house arrest of Varavara Rao.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Judicial Harassment
- HRD
- Lawyer
- Pro-democracy defender
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Summary for Publications
On 26 October 2018, bail applications filed by noted human rights activists Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, who are under house arrest in relation to FIR registered by Maharashtra police for alleged Maoist links in Bhima-Koregaon violence, was rejected by a Pune court.