National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a notice to Maharashtra Government and Director General of Police (DGP) highlighting that standard guidelines and procedure were not followed by Pune Police while arresting the five activists and it amounts to the violation of their “human rights”.
Earlier on August 28, Pune Police carried out multi-city raids and arrested five human rights activists and lawyers including Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao, and Vernon Gonsalves. NHRC has given them four weeks to provide a ‘factual report’ on their claims.
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Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Mayawati have also strongly protested against the arrests. Mayawati alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is misusing its power trying to silence the voices of activists fighting for the rights of Dalits. Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury also called for an agitation at Jantar Mantar over this issue.
Minister of State (MoS) Home Affairs Deepak Kesarkar sided with the actions carried out by Pune Police saying that the actions have been taken after collecting the evidence. Police never take action without proof, he added.
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These people are running their separate government and this is not good for democracy,” MoS Home Affairs Deepak Kesarkar.
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