Sudha Bharadwaj to be kept under house arrest until 30 August rules Faridabad CJM in late night legal action after Bhima Koregaon raids

After late night action that spilled over till 1:30 am Wednesday, Chief Judicial Magistrate of Faridabad Ashok Kumar directed the Surajkund police to keep activist Sudha Bharadwaj, arrested Tuesday in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence from December 2017, in her Badarpur home under house arrest until 30 August. Bharadwaj is one of the five activists arrested Tuesday after multi-city raids by the Pune police in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence on 31 December when Dalit activists clashed with upper-caste Marathas.

By 2 am Wednesday, the dust finally settled and Bharadwaj has been taken to her house where she will be under the supervision of Surajkund police till the Punjab and Haryana High Court hears the matter on 30 August.

Here is the operative portion of the latest, handwritten order: "The matter is subjudiced before the HC and it will be prudent to wait for the orders of HC, where the case is listed for 30/8/18 therefore in compliance of order of HC, the transit remand issued in the earlier hours at 740 PM is recalled till 30/8." Bharadwaj's lawyer Vrinda Grover explains the order, in this video tweet:

The Faridabad CJM had earlier granted Bharadwaj’s transit remand to the Maharashtra police despite the Punjab and Haryana High Court staying the remand until 30 August. Bharadwaj is said to have informed her lawyer that police were trying to take her directly to the airport late night Tuesday. Bharadwaj was arrested from her Charmwood Village house around 7 a.m Tuesday by a group of 10 Maharashtra police personnel.

Well after midnight local time, reports from Faridabad indicated that Bharadwaj was being held in a Toyota Innova vehicle parked just outside the house of the CJM in Faridabad's Sector 15A. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had ordered that Bharadwaj will not be remanded to Maharashtra Police custody till the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Faridabad passes an order granting this transit remand.

Activist Sudha Bharadwaj. Image procured by Greeshma Rai/Firstpost

Nine activists were searched and five of them arrested Tuesday after sweeping multi-city raids across in Delhi, Faridabad, Goa, Mumbai, Ranchi and Hyderabad. Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj and activists Arun Fereira, Gautam Navlakha and Vernon Gonsalves are the five people who have been taken into custody Tuesday over allegations of Maoist links.