Following the arrests of five civil right activists and lawyers in the case related to Bhima Koregaon violence, former Chief Justice of India, RM Lodha on 30 August, decried the incident and referred to the arrests as 'an attack on freedom of speech', The Indian Express reported.
Adding further on the arrests of five people that took place on 28 August, Lodha said that the arrests are an attempt to ‘suppress the dissenting voice’.
The arrests were an attack on freedom of speech, and an act to undermine the fundamentals of Constitutional democracy.RM Lodha, Former Chief Justice of India
The countrywide raids and arrests were part of an ever-expanding investigation into an alleged Maoist involvement in the Elgaar Parishad meeting, an event that was held a day before the bicentennial of Bhima Koregaon.
According to the police, the speeches made at Elgaar Parishad incited violence during the Bhima Koregaon event on 1 January 2018.
‘Arrests Are Attempts to Divert People from News’
Further speaking on the issue of the meeting at Elgaar parishad, former judge of the Supreme Court and one of the organisers of the Elgaar Parishad meeting, Justice P B Sawant told The Indian Express that the arrests are attempts by the government to divert people from other news in the country.
I don’t know why these persons have been arrested. The police are alleging they are connected to the Naxalite movement and are also organisers of the Elgaar conference on 31 December last year. Did they realise this after eight months?P B Sawant, Former Supreme Court Judge
“I have never seen them. Only one of them, a lady advocate, visited me earlier for some legal advice some time back. When some other arrests were made, the police had then said that nothing was found to connect them to Naxalites. Now, they are organising another spate of arrests, he added.
The former judge also told The Indian Express that there will be more meetings across the country, more so because the government and police are after them.
The five accused Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Fereira, Gautam Navlakha and Vernon Gonsalves were produced before the Supreme Court on 29 August. All five are under house arrest until the next hearing scheduled on 5 September.
(With inputs from The Indian Express)
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