The Supreme Court on Wednesday, 29 August, issued a notice to the Maharashtra government, directing that the five activists arrested by Pune police be placed under house arrests in their homes until the next hearing on 6 September.
The activists were arrested on suspicion of having Maoist links and being involved in the violence that broke out during the Bhima Koregaon protests.
Staying the arrests, the three-judge bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra said that “dissent is the safety valve of any democracy.”
After #MeTooUrbanNaxal, #NoMoreFakeCharges Trends on Twitter
Social media outrage on the raids and arrests continued as people used the hashtags #NoMoreFakeCharges and #MeTooUrbanNaxal to voice their opinions, post the SC’s decision.
“India Is In a State of Undeclared Emergency”
Many argued that this crackdown on activists is proof that India is in a state of “undeclared emergency”.
In an article in Scroll, writer and activist Arundhati Roy also commented on the raids and arrests, saying that this is “as close to a declaration of an Emergency as we will ever get.” Roy added that anybody who speaks up for justice or against Hindu majoritarianism is being made into a criminal.
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