A special court in Pune on Wednesday rejected the bail pleas of six activists in connection with the Elgar Parishad case.
Activists Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Varavara Rao and Sudhir Dhavle are accused of having Maoist links.
The six accused had sought bail on the ground that the police had not produced any substantial evidence against them. During the hearing, the prosecution said there was material to show links between the accused and Maoists. PTI reported.
Additional Sessions Judge SR Navandar said the evidence suggested that the accused were members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and were active involved in furthering the cause of the banned outfit.
They were arrested after raids at their homes and offices in connection with an event to commemorate the Battle of Bhima Koregaon on December 31.
Four other activists – Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Sudha Bharadwaj – were also arrested in August 2018 as part of the same investigation.
Earlier, Dalit leaders, left politicians and many human rights activists condemned the “vindictive and arbitrary arrest” of the activists. They alleged that the arrests were a “predetermined planned attack” on those who have been protesting against “injustices perpetuated by state and non-state Hindu right-wing groups”.
