Bhima Koregaon: SC adjourns hearing to Sept 12, asks state to keep cops in check

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Maharashtra government over state police addressing the media on Bhima-Koregaon raids. 

Adjourning hearing on the plea challenging arrest of five activists to September 12, the top court ordered to keep the activists in house arrest till then.

“Keep your police officer in line. He is talking to the press, insinuating the Supreme Court is wrong. We don't want your police officer to tell us we are wrong. You are ruining people's reputations, casting aspersions on the court,” Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud told the Maharashtra government, asking to direct its police to be more responsible when matter is heard by the SC.

The SC further asked petitioners Romila Thapar and others to satisfy it whether a third-party can intervene in a criminal case. 

On August 28, the Maharashtra police conducted raids and arrested Telugu poet Varavara Rao from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha from Delhi. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 in 2017, which had later triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district of Maharashtra.

Additional Director General (ADG) of Maharashtra Police Param Bir Singh later held a press conference over the raids.

Earlier, the Bombay High Court had come down heavily on the Maharashtra Police for holding a press conference and elaborating on the evidence against activists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case.