The police arrested eight human rights activists, including award winning documentary filmmaker from Karnataka Gopal Menon, on Saturday, as they were trying to reach Lalgarh for an on-the-spot study of the prevailing situation. They were later given unconditional bail and sent to Kolkata in a police van.

The eight activists, part of a team of Fact Finding Committee of India, belong to different states and were picked up from the Midnapore station. “They have been arrested for trying to break the prohibitory orders in force and visit Lalgarh. We picked them up from the station and requested them not to visit Lalgarh since Section 144 CrPC was imposed. But they insisted and we had to arrest them,” said Inspector-in-Charge Prabir Banerjee of the Kotwali police station.

Some of those arrested are Raja Sorkhel from West Bengal, K P Pandit from Bihar and Sesnath Chatterjee from Bangalore.

The state government, meanwhile, also denied permission to Union Sports Minister M S Gill to visit Lalgarh. Recently a case was lodged against famous actor-director Aparna Sen, theatre personality Saonli Mitra and others who formed a team and visited Lalgarh to mediate a truce.