Pune sessions court sends Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves to 14 days judicial custody

On Tuesday, a Pune sessions court sent Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonslaves, the three accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, to 14 days judicial custody.

Meanwhile, Arun Ferreira claimed in court that he had been beaten up during his custodial interrogation. He said that on 4^th November he was slapped 8-10 times by police officials and that on 5^th November he was taken to the hospital.

Earlier, the Pune Sessions Court had rejected bail plea of advocate Shoma Sen, who has been accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case.

Sen moved the bail application in the Pune Sessions Court on September 14.

Shoma Sen and four others-- Mahesh Raut, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale and Rona Wilson, were arrested for ‘Maoist’ links in June.

The five were accused of their alleged involvement in the violence that erupted earlier this year during the 200th anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle.

Apart from this, five activists, namely poet Vara Vara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj, activists Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, and Gautam Navlakha, had been put under house arrest since August 29 for their alleged involvement in the violence.

One person was killed and many were injured in the clashes which took place on January 1, 2018.

Earlier, the Maharashtra government, in an affidavit, had told the Supreme Court that the activists were "members of banned terrorist organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist)".