New Delhi, August 29: The arrests of five activists in raids across several states of the country has been challenged in the Supreme Court today. A petition against the arrests has been filed by Romila Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik, Satish Deshpande, Maya Darnall and one other person. The matter will be heard by the top court at 3:35 pm today.

The five activists Sudha Bhardwa, Gautam Navalakha, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira were arrested yesterday in connection with Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 1 this year. Bhardwaj and Navlakha’s transit remand was put on hold. Navlakha will stay under house arrest till August 29, while Bhardwaj is put under house arrest till August 30.

The Delhi High Court will hear Navlakha matter at 2:15 pm today as police have sought more time for translation of documents from Marathi to English. The court has asked the counsel for police to file the documents till 12 noon. Pune police was probing into Elgaar Parishad, a conclave that was held on December 31 last year in Shaniwada near Pune to mark 200th anniversary to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.

Opposition parties slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party government for arresting the activists. Congress resident Rahul Gandhi blamed the government for attacking activists who are not affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. However, the BJP claimed that the activists had links with Maoists. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju took a dig at the Congress president for supporting the activists.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 29, 2018 11:12 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).