Hyderabad-based activist Varavara Rao on Thursday said the Pune Police’s case against him and four other activists in connection with the violence in Maharashtra’s Koregaon-Bhima village on January 1 was false, PTI reported. “This is a false case,” Rao told reporters at Hyderabad airport, as he was brought back home from Pune. “If the fight against fascist policies is called a conspiracy, then there cannot be a bigger conspiracy than this.”

The five activists are accused of having links to the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist). On Tuesday morning, teams of the Pune Police had raided the homes of several activists in Mumbai, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Delhi, Faridabad and Goa as part of an investigation into a public meeting on December 31, a day before caste-related violence erupted at Bhima Koregaon.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had criticised the Maharashtra Police for arresting the five activists eight months after the violence. It also stayed their transit remand and ordered that they be placed under house arrest till the next hearing on September 6.

“Bhima-Koregaon case should have been filed against the state and central governments,” Rao said.

Rao’s legal counsel claimed the Telangana Police were not permitting his lawyers to meet him. Deputy Commissioner of Police Viswa Prasad, however, said that the Hyderabad police were enforcing the top court’s order.