In an appearance before the Pune Sessions Court on Tuesday, Arun Ferreira, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, alleged that the investigating officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police Shivaji Pawar, hit him eight to ten times during an interrogation session on November 4 and that he was taken to Sassoon Hospital the next day.

While the court allowed Ferreira to record this statement, it also granted government pleader Ujjwala Pawar’s request for this to be done in camera at the end of proceedings as it was a sensitive case. Pawar also presented Ferreira’s original medical records from Sassoon Hospital to the court.

The court extended the judicial custody of Ferreira and co-accused Sudha Bhardwaj and Vernon Gonsalves until November 19.

The Pune Police arrested Ferreira, Bhardwaj, Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha and Varavara Rao in a series of coordinated early morning raids across the country on August 28. The police had arrested five other activists and lawyers on June 6. The 10 arrested persons are accused of masterminding the caste-related violence that broke out at Bhima Koregaon and neighbouring areas near Pune in Maharashtra on January 1, as well as of having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

The Supreme Court on October 29 stayed a Bombay High Court order refusing the Pune Police more time to file a chargesheet against the five persons arrested in June. Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Maharashtra government, had assured the apex court that the chargesheet would be filed in 10 days.