NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday cautioned a Pune assistant commissioner of police for holding a press conference and casting aspersions on the apex court for ordering that five arrested rights activists - Sudha Bharadwaj , Gautam Navlakha, P Varavara Rao , Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves - be kept under house arrest instead of police custody.When additional solicitor general (ASG) Tushar Mehta was arguing that petitioners Romila Thapar, Devaki Jain, Prabhat Pattnaik, Satish Deshpande and Maya Daruwala were complete strangers in the proceedings and could not be permitted to have any say in the case, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud took umbrage at the tone, tenor and context of the press conference held by the ACP.Justice Chandrachud said, "Ask your police officers to be responsible and ask your Pune ACP to exercise restraint when we are in session of the matter. How dare he cast aspersions on the Supreme Court for entertaining the petition and ordering house arrest? He should not talk to the press and cast aspersions on the court. We have taken the matter very seriously."Mehta was quick to apologise for any breach on part of the ACP and said, "If anything is said in the press briefing of the police against the court, I tender apology on behalf of the police. But I will explain why the press briefing was necessary on the next date of hearing." The bench adjourned the hearing till September 12 and ordered that the five activists will remain in house arrest till then.Mehta and ASG Maninder Singh said the petitioners' perception that the five arrested persons "were so eminent that they could not have done anything wrong" was completely at variance with the evidence collected by police.The petitioners, through senior advocates A M Singhvi, Indira Jaising, Raju Ramachandran and Rajeev Dhavan, aided by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, said spouses of the arrested persons had joined them in seeking probe into the arrests made on August 28 by Pune police, thus making the petition by Romila Thapar and other maintainable.In an additional affidavit, the petitioners and kin of those arrested told the court that most evidence relied upon by the police appeared fabricated. Singhvi said the ASG, by arguing on the merits of the case, was attempting to create prejudice against the activists.Appearing for the complainant, advocate Harish Salve said it was for the trial court to scrutinise evidence and grant relief to the arrested persons and there was no question of any third party having any role.