New Delhi, Aug 28: The Delhi High Court has restrained the Pune Police from taking into custody activist Gautam Navlakha, who is among the five arrested today in raids across six cities.

The bench, while hearing an immediate plea moved by Navlakha's counsel, said the activist could be taken into custody only after the court concludes the hearing.

A series of raids were conducted by the Pune Police today in Mumbai, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Faridabad, Delhi and Thane. The five activists arrested have been identified as Varvara Rao, Arun Pereira, Gautam Navlakha, Varnan Gonsalves and Sudha Bhardwaj. All the accused have been booked under IPC sections 153 A, 505(1), 117, 120 B, 13, 16, 18, 20, 38, 39, 40 and provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Their arrests comes a couple of months after five activists - Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson and Shoma Sen - were arrested in June for allegedly provoking Dalit groups to resort to violence in Bhima Koregaon in January this year.

Pune Police sources claim the activists, with alleged links to the banned CPI (Maoist), were plotting the assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The basis for their claim are the purported letters recovered in raid from the house of Rona Wilson.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has opposed the police crackdown, calling it an assault against those who are speaking against Hindu majoritarianism. "This is a brazen attack on democratic rights. We are demanding that all the cases against these people be withdrawn and they be released forthwith," said senior CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 28, 2018 05:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).