Mumbai, Sept 3: The Bombay High Court on Monday questioned the Maharashtra police for briefing the press last week on activists' arrest, despite the matter being sub-judice. The court expressed doubts on whether the case warranted an address to the media while it was still a subject of probe.

The High Court's remarks came while hearing a plea which sought the transfer of probe into the Bhima Koregaon raids to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). At present, the case is being investigated by the Pune police.

The bench transferred the hearing of petition to September 7, as copies of the plea was not provided to all parties concerned in the case.

On August 31, Maharashtra Additional Director General of Police Parambir Singh addressed the press to justify the arrests of lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj, civil liberties activists Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, and Telugu poet P Varavara Rao. The five were held following multi-city raids by the Pune police on August 28.

The police said they have recovered incrementing sets of evidence, including leaked letters, in the arrests made so far which have indicated a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and uproot the BJP-led central government in an unconstitutional manner.

The police have charged the five activists, along with the six arrested in June, under IPC sections 153A, 153B, 295 and provisions of the Unlawful Activists Prevention Act. The charge sheet, however, is yet to be filed despite the first set of arrests made three months ago. A Pune court on Friday granted the police an extension of 90 days to file the charge sheet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 03, 2018 04:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).