Sudha Bharadwaj was among the five activists arrested over allegations of Maoist links.
A day after multi-city raids at the homes of 10 activists over suspected Maoist links led to the arrests of five of them, #MeTooUrbanNaxal became the second-most popular Twitter trend. The Pune Police say that their investigation into the Koregaon Bhima violence led them to these activists. Their arrests were heavily criticised and described as "absolutely chilling" and an attempt to "muzzle the voice of dissent".
The term "urban naxals" was condemned by activists, lawyers and Dalit leaders in a joint statement, which said the expression was invented to "stifle any criticism of the government".
However, it picked up big time after filmmaker and author Vivek Agnihotri asked some "bright young minds" to help him draw a list of those who are "defending urban naxals" on Twitter.
"I want some bright young people to make a list of all those who are defending #UrbanNaxals Let's see where it leads," he tweeted.
Thousands of users responded to his call and soon the hashtag destroyed him on Twitter.
Mr Agnihotri has written a book titled "Urban Naxals: The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam", which "exposed the nexus between an India-wide Maoist terror movement and their supporters in urban centers such as academia and media", according to the description.
The five who have been arrested are Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, activists Arun Fereira, Gautam Navlakha and Vernon Gonsalves after raids were carried out at their Delhi, Faridabad, Goa, Mumbai, Ranchi and Hyderabad homes.