New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday extended the house arrest of five rights activists arrested over suspicion of links with Maoists till September 12.
The top court also asked the Maharashtra government to direct its police to be more responsible when the matter is heard by it.
Lawyer and trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj, revolutionary poet P Varavara Rao, civil rights activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha, and lawyers and activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves were arrested after near-simultaneous raids across five states.
They were charged with criminal conspiracy, creating fear and enmity between various groups, and under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The arrests were part of an investigation into the violence that rocked Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra on January 1 during the bicentennial celebration of a British-era war.