“The matter is before us now and we don’t want the Police to be telling us that we are wrong,” the court said, posting the matter for further hearing on September 12. (Representational image)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday extended till September 12 the “house arrest” of five human rights activists — Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Nav-lakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and P. Varavara Rao — who were taken into custody by the Maharashtra police in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence earlier this year.  

The court earlier ordered the activsts’ house arrest till September 6 and sought Maharashtra’s reply to the writ petition filed challenging the arrest of five activists for their alleged Maoists links from Delhi, Faridabad, Mumbai, Thane and Hyderabad.

On Thursday a three judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud pulled up the Pune police for briefing the media about the arrests. “The matter is before us now and we don’t want the Police to be telling us that we are wrong,” the court said, posting the matter for further hearing on September 12.