At a press conference in Mumbai on Saturday. (Express photo by Ganesh Shirsekar) At a press conference in Mumbai on Saturday. (Express photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)

Lawyer Susan Abraham, wife of activist Vernon Gonsalves, who was arrested by the Pune Police on Friday in connection with the Koregaon Bhima violence of January 1, said on Saturday that while the state government cannot touch Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide and right-wing leader Milind Ekbote because they are “sacrosanct” as well as the Sanathan Santha, where arms and explosives were recovered, it wants to search the houses of the people because they are suspected to be part of certain banned organisations.

Accompanied by lawyer and activist Teesta Setalvad, activist Dolphy D’souza and advocate Nilima Dutta at the Mumbai Press Club, Abraham said they would approach the Bombay High Court next week seeking bail for lawyer Arun Ferriera and Gonsalves.

Setalvad said the activists were left with no remedy at the last moment as the Pune sessions court decided their cases on October 26 — the last day of their house arrest. The court also rejected the bail pleas at 5 pm, she added. “The sessions court should have ideally passed the order a week earlier, giving them time to appeal. Everyone has the right to appeal. Why this dadagiri?… We are worried about the safety of those arrested.”

Setalvad further said that the inherent problem of the attack on Dalits on January 1 has not been addressed at all. The Dalits, who were celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon in Pune were not given the opportunity to hold a peaceful march, she added.

“Justice Mridula Bhatkar (of the Bombay High Court) quashed and set aside the order of Pune court allowing 90-day extension to file the chargesheet… she has extensively commented on the procedure followed by the investigating officer,” Abraham said.

Maintaining that the arrest of Ferriera and Gonsalves are blatantly illegal, Abraham said: “State-sponsored news channels displayed the sensitive and controversial letters allegedly written by Sudha Bharadwaj (another activist who was arrested from her residence in Faridabad on Saturday) to some comrade in national channel even before they made it to the court.”

“The joint commissioner of police and ADG (Law and Order), breaking all codes of neutrality and discretion, conducted press conference where all the alleged letters that have formed the basis of the investigation were handed out to media organisations, paving the way for a vicious media trial,” she added.

“These alleged letters have been used to slap the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against the activists who have been striving to bring out the anti-people policies of the ruling government,” a joint statement issued on Saturday said.

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