(Image source from: Twitter)
A Pune-based man, who had lodged an FIR (First Information Report) in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence that led to the apprehension of five human rights activists, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking that he be made a party in the plea filed by Indian historian Romila Thapar and four others.
A bench including Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud said it would hear the plea on September 6 when the petition filed by Thapar and four others will come up for hearing.
The plea filed by Tushar Damgude sought that he be made a party in the pending case as it was he who had lodged the FIR in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence earlier this year.
Earlier, the top court had ordered that the five human rights activists would be kept under house arrest till September 6 observing that opposition was the "safety valve" of democracy.
Related content: SC Orders House Arrest for Five Right Activists
While granting relief to activists Arun Farreira, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bhardwaj, Vernon Gonzalves, and Gautam Navalakha, the top court did not consider the heated opposition of Maharashtra government challenging the locus of the petitioners, four others, and Thapar, seeking relief on their behalf, and calling them "strangers".
The Maharashtra Police had detained them in link with an FIR lodged following a meeting - 'Elgaar Parishad' - held on December 31 earlier this year that had well along triggered ferocity at Koregaon-Bhima village. The petitioners' locus was challenged by state, dubbing them as "strangers".
The plea, by Thapar, economists Devaki Jain and Prabhat Patnaik, sociology professor Satish Deshpandey and Maja Daruwala, human rights lawyer has sought an independent investigation into the arrests and their instant release.
Prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, whereas activists Arun Farreira and Vernon Gonzalves were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj from Haryana's Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha was arrested from New Delhi.
By Sowmya Sangam
