The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused bail to civil activists Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferriera and Vernon Gonsalves, arrested for allegedly inciting caste-based violence at Bhima Koregaon in Pune and having links with Maoists.

Justice Sarang Kotwal rejected the bail pleas filed by the three activists.

The accused were initially placed under house arrest in August last year by the Pune police in Maharashtra and were later taken into custody on October 26, after a sessions court in Pune rejected their bail pleas.

The activists, who have been in jail since then, had approached the high court last year.

The police have booked the three accused and several other activists under provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has extended the interim protection from arrest granted to civil rights activist Gautma Navlakha by four weeks in the same case.

However, a bench of justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta asked Navlakha to approach the court concerned to seek pre-arrest bail in the case.

When the counsel, appearing for Maharashtra government, objected to the grant of further interim protection to Navlakha, the bench questioned the state as to why they had not interrogated him for over a year.

An FIR was lodged against Navlakha and others, including the three activists, by the Pune police in January 2018 after the Elgar Parishad, held on December 31, 2017, had allegedly led to violence at Bhima Koregaon in Pune district the next day.

The police alleged that the accused had links with Maoists and were working towards overthrowing the government.