Mid-way through a packed press conference on yesterday at the Press Club at Azad Maidan, advocate Mihir Desai stated triumphantly, "The Supreme Court has ruled that five activists arrested in raids by the police cannot be held in custody, but will be held under house arrest. This is a slap on the face of the government." The room, bursting at its seams with supporters of at least 30 civil society organisations and the press, at a conference to condemn the arrests of activists, burst into applause. The police on Tuesday arrested five activists – Sudha Bhardwaj, Gautam Navalakha, P Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves – in pan-India raids.

They have been arrested as part of a probe into the Elgaar Parishad and subsequent Bhima Koregaon riots. Desai's interjection came when speaker Susan Abraham was speaking, but it was Desai who began the meet, after some struggle to restore order as the room got hopelessly packed.