The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that the two men, arrested in connection with the violence witnessed in Noida last month following a workers’ protest, will continue to remain in judicial custody.

The accused have alleged “ill-treatment” in police custody.

“We have heard senior counsel for the parties. Pending further consideration of the matter, we direct the judicial custody of the two persons, Aditya Anand and Rupesh Roy, to continue,” a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said.

Stating that the law has to take its course, the bench added that pendency of the matter before it will not come in the way of the duo or the investigators from seeking relief in accordance with law.

Hearing a plea by Aditya’s brother Keshav, the top court had on May 15 asked the Uttar Pradesh government to produce the two accused before it. Accordingly, they were produced on Tuesday.

Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves said the accused were allegedly tortured by the police to make fake recoveries and urged that they be permitted to continue in judicial custody. He also claimed that lawyers who went to meet them were forcefully prevented. He also sought a CBI inquiry into alleged torture.

The bench interacted with the duo who also claimed that they were ill-treated by the police.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) K M Nataraj, who appeared for the state of Uttar Pradesh, said that even the accused ought to be treated with dignity.

The court said it was satisfied with the appearance of the duo and would keep them in judicial custody for now. It orally said that the police can interrogate them in judicial custody if it wants.

The bench also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the Centre on the plea challenging the preventive detention of Satyam Verma in connection with the April 13 violence.

The court however did not give him any interim relief Tuesday.

The bench was informed that a habeus corpus petition challenging his arrest is already pending before the Allahabad High Court.