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Bhima-Koregaon case: Supreme Court junks NIA appeal against Sudha Bharadwaj, paves way for her release

Bharadwaj is the first among 16 activists arrested in the case to have been granted default bail. Poet-activist Varavara Rao is currently out on medical bail. Meanwhile, Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died in a private hospital on July 5 this year, while waiting for medical bail.

Bhima-Koregaon case: Supreme Court junks NIA appeal against Sudha Bharadwaj, paves way for her release-dnm
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New Delhi, First Published Dec 7, 2021, 12:31 PM IST

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) challenging an earlier Bombay High Court order granting default bail to lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj, who was arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case in August 2018 under the provisions of stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A bench of Justices UU Lalit, Ravindra Bhat and Bela Trivedi said it finds no reason to interfere in the Bombay High Court order.

The High Court had granted Bharadwaj default bail on December 1 on the ground that her detention under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was extended by a sessions court that had no power to do so.

According to Bar and Bench, the Supreme Court bench asked the NIA why it made this application for an extension before a magisterial court when there is a separate special court at Pune, manned by special judges who ought to be hearing the NIA case. This is, incidentally, the similar ground on which Bharadwaj, who was arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case in August 2018 under the provisions of the stringent UAPA, was granted default bail by the Bombay High Court last week.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), represented by Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi, argued that the High Court was wrong in holding that Bharadwaj was entitled to default bail, and contested a Supreme Court ruling from 2020 which had led to this conclusion.

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The High Court had directed that Bharadwaj, lodged in the Byculla women's prison, be produced before the Mumbai special NIA court on Wednesday, December 8, and conditions of her bail and date of release be decided. Now that the NIA's appeal has been struck down, the SC has paved the way for Sudha Bharadwaj to be produced before court on Wednesday.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Bhima-Koregaon war memorial located on the city's outskirts. The Pune police had claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists. The probe in the case was later transferred to the NIA. Bharadwaj has been in custody for over three years awaiting trial.

However, the High Court had, while accepting her bail plea, rejected similar pleas filed by Varavara Rao, Sudhir Dhawale, Vernon Gonsalves, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut and Arun Ferreira.

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