Activist Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested at her Haryana residence on Tuesday. On Tuesday, at least nine houses were searched by the Pune Police and five people (including Bharadwaj) were arrested. These arrests were part of the multi-city countrywide searches going on regarding the Maoist link in the Bhima Koregaon protests which took place in January near Pune.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ashok Kumar dismissed Bharadwaj's transit bail application but the Punjab and Haryana High Court barred the police from taking the human rights activist to Pune and ordered that she remain under house arrest till August 30.
Vrinda Grover, one of Bharadwaj's advocates approached Mr Kumar at his residence on Wednesday, midnight and made a submission regarding the matter.
In a dramatic turn of events on Tuesday, Bharadwaj's lawyers had claimed that the activist was not at her house.
Bharadwaj later told her lawyers that she was taken to the airport by the Pune Police to be transported to Pune even though she was granted a transit remand.
Vrinda Grover told News 18 "They are neither respecting the order of the High Court nor are they disclosing the whereabouts of a woman in their custody. This is an extremely serious situation and a brazen violation of the court's order".
According to Scroll, Bharadwaj filed a plea stating that her arrest documents were in Marathi and she couldn't understand what was written. She also added that the First Information Report did not contain her name.
Along with Bharadwaj, the houses of Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Gautam Navlakha, Stan Swamy, Varavara Rao, Kranti Tekula and Naseem and Anand Teltumbde were also searched due to alleged link with Maoist organisations and a plot to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Supreme Court will hear the case against the five arrested at 3:45 pm on Wednesday, August 29.
