An 83-year-old activist, Stan Swamy, was arrested by the National Investigative Agency on Thursday, the lates in the series of arrests of activists in the Bhima-Koregaon case.
He was taken into custody from his home in Ranchi.
The Hindu quoted the activist saying in a statement, โThe nature of the present NIA investigation of me has nothing to do about Bhima Koregaon case in which I have been booked as a suspected accused and consequently raided twice. But it had everything to do to somehow establish that I am personally linked to extremist leftist forces and through me Bagaicha [his residential campus] is also relating to some Maoists. I denied both these allegations in strongest terms.โ
The activist has been questioned several times earlier this year. He was questioned over several hours on July 27, 28, 29 and 30 and August 6, The Hindu said.
The NIA has alleged he has Maoist links.
NDTV reported that the activist was taken away by NIA officials from Delhi after spending 20 minutes in his home.
Several prominent activists like Hany Babu, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves and others have been arrested in the case since August 2018.
Swamyโs arrested created outrage with many taking to social media to protest it.
Hereโs what people said: