Pune court rejects bail pleas of Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, October 27

Advertisement

A Pune Sessions Court rejected the bail pleas of activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves on Saturday and remanded them in police custody till November 6.

The two were taken into custody by the Pune Police on Friday at the end of the month-long house arrest ordered by the Supreme Court. They were produced before Additional Sessions Judge KD Vadane who rejected their bail pleas. The prosecution contended that the two along, with other accused, were linked to Maoist groups.

The judge agreed with the prosecution that the materials collected by the investigating agency showed links of the accused to Maoists.

Dhairyasheel Patil, senior counsel for Gonsalves, said the remand would be challenged before the Bombay High Court.

Ferreira, Gonsalves, activist Sudha Bharadwaj, journalist Gautam Navlakha and poet P Varavara Rao were arrested on August 28 by the Pune Police for allegedly inciting violence at the Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on December 31 last year.

Bharadwaj was picked up by Pune Police from Faridabad in Haryana. Officials said she was to be produced before the court later this evening.

The Supreme Court had on August 29 ordered the activists to be kept under house arrest while allowing them to avail of other legal remedies.  Earlier on Saturday, Ferreria and Gonsalves were brought to the court amid tight security this morning.