The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed default bail petitions of Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut and Shoma Sen who are accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad - Bhima Koregaon case. They were arrested by the Pune police in June 2018. The case was subsequently transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2020.
The bail pleas were dismissed by a bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and Shyam Chandak on Friday.
The Supreme Court had granted regular bail to Sen in April. Raut was granted bail by the high court in September 2023. However, the HC stayed the bail order, and the same has been extended from time to time. The NIA’s appeal against bail to Raut is pending before the SC.
The accused had approached the HC challenging the order of the special NIA court rejecting their bail pleas.
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In November 2018, the Pune police first chargesheet was filed in the case after completion of the 90-day stipulated period. The additional chargesheet was filed in February 2019. The NIA took over in 2020.
They contended that the Pune police had sought extension to file the chargesheet in August 2018 and the same was granted in September. However, the procedure under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was not followed and the same was against the law. They had also questioned the competence of the judge granting extension to the police.
Lawyers for the accused, Anand Grover and R Sathyanarayanan, submitted they were entitled to default bail soon after the expiry of the 90-day period, as no chargesheet was filed when they sought bail.
Appearing for the NIA, Additional Solicitor General Deveng Vyas and advocate Sandesh Patil contended that the high court had considered the issue of the judge’s competence and extension for filing chargesheet. Vyas contended that the same were not challenged before the SC. He said the present petitions were an attempt to create confusion with multiple proceedings.
The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017. The police claimed that it triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune district. It is also alleged that the conclave was backed by Maoists.
Sixteen persons were arrested for their alleged conspiracy in the case. Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and Shoma Sen are out on bail. Although Mahesh Raut has been granted bail, it stayed and the matter is pending in the SC.
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