The Pune Sessions Court on Tuesday, 6 November, sent the three activists – Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves – to judicial custody for 14 days in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, ANI reported.
Alleging that he was beaten up during the custodial interrogation, Ferreira told the court that on 4 November, he was slapped by police officials about 8-10 times during interrogation and on 5 November, he was taken to a hospital.
Earlier, Ferreira and Gonsalves were sent to police custody till 6 November by a Pune Sessions Court.
The order came a day after the court on Friday, 26 October, rejected the bail pleas of Ferreira, Gonsalves and Sudha Bharadwaj after the period of their house arrests, as specified by the Supreme Court, came to an end.
Bharadwaj was taken into custody by Maharashtra Police on Saturday, 27 October, ANI reported.
Ferreira, Gonsalves, Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, and Varavara Rao were arrested on 28 August after the Pune police conducted raids across India, on people suspected to have Maoist links in the Bhima Koregaon violence.
According to PTI, the activists had allegedly funded the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave in Pune, held a day before the Koregaon-Bhima violence on 1 January.
The speeches at the conclave, held on 31 December last year to mark the 200th anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle, had fuelled violence a day later, PTI had quoted officials as saying.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
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