Several teams of Pune police raided the residences of activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha in Delhi, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, revolutionary writer Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Stan Swamy in Ranchi and Anand Teltumbde in Goa in connection with the Bhima Koregaon Violence.
Amnesty International and several other groups, including People s Union for Civil Liberties, said that the arrests of the activists was a concerted attempt to silence voices of dissent and crush human rights interventions. The police arrested five noted activists, including Varvara Rao, Arun Pereira, Gautam Navlakha, Varnan Gonsalves and Sudha Bhardwaj, for their alleged Maoist links.