Shortly after midnight, the Maharashtra Police reached the Eros Garden Colony residence of noted human rights activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Sector 39 here, after her bail plea was rejected by a Pune special court on Friday.
Ms. Bhardwaj is expected to be formally arrested on Saturday morning since laws don’t permit to arrest women after sunset.
Ms. Bhardwaj's counsel Shalini Gera said the Maharashtra Police reached the residence of the activist around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday and all of them were in plain clothes.
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“As of now we are told that they would formally arrest Ms. Bhardwaj in the morning as they cannot make arrest at night. The Haryana Police are still here,” said Ms. Gera, adding that the Maharashtra Police were busy completing legal formalities.
The Pune court had on Friday rejected the bail pleas filed by Ms. Bhardwaj and activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves. Mr. Ferreira and Mr. Gonsalves were arrested from Mumbai on the same day.
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The three activists had been under house arrest since August 29. The Supreme Court had on September 28 given them four weeks time to seek legal remedies. That period ended on Friday.
The activists were first arrested on August 28 along with poet-activist Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha for allegedly having links with the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and purportedly having had a role in the controversial ‘Elgaar Parishad’ and the subsequent Bhima-Koregaon clashes.