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Updated December 3rd, 2021 at 08:07 IST

Bhima Koregaon case: NIA moves Supreme Court challenging bail to accused Sudha Bharadwaj

In a key development, the NIA moved the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order granting default bail to Sudha Bharadwaj in the Bhima Koregaon case.

Reported by: Akhil Oka
BHIMA KOREGAON CASE, SC
Image: PTI | Image:self
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In a key development, the NIA moved the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order granting default bail to Sudha Bharadwaj in the Bhima Koregaon case. The activist-lawyer had contended in her plea that Additional Sessions Judge KD Vadane of the Pune Sessions Court who had taken cognisance of the police charge sheet in 2019, was not authorised to do so. Pointing out that only a Special Court has the exclusive jurisdiction to try UAPA offences, her lawyer Yug Chaudhry cites RTI replies from the HC to show that Vadane was not a designated special judge.

As an offence, her lawyer Yug Chaudhry cites RTI replies from the HC to show that Vadane was not a designated special judge. However, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni and Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh submitted that the cases under the UAPA would be transferred to a Special Court only after the NIA is entrusted with the investigation. Previously, multiple courts had rejected her bail plea on health grounds.

Ruling in her favour, a bench comprising Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar held, "In the case at hand, with the declaration that the learned Additional Sessions Judge (Shri K.D. Vadane) had no jurisdictional competence to extend the period of detention under section 43-D(2)(b) of UAPA, the very substratum of the prosecution case that the right to default bail did not ripe into an indefeasible right, as the period of detention was extended, gets dismantled". The Special NIA court will now decide the conditions of her bail on December 8. Arrested on August 28, 2018, she is presently lodged at the Byculla Women's Jail in Mumbai.

The Bhima Koregaon case

Violence had erupted at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district on January 1, 2018, where supporters had gathered to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. This resulted in the death of one person and left several injured. Subsequently, the Pune police arrested activists such as Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, and Vernon Gonsalves, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale and P Varavara Rao for allegedly inciting the Bhima Koregaon violence through their speech at the Elgar Parishad meeting on December 31, 2017. 

The charges filed by the police include 'conspiracy to assassinate PM Narendra Modi', 'overthrow the government', 'waging war against the Government of India' under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Also, it has been alleged that some of the arrested individuals are active members of the banned CPI (Maoists) party. In January 2020, the case was transferred to the NIA.

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Published December 3rd, 2021 at 08:07 IST

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