‘Bharadwaj can stay in Thane’
NIA court allows her plea to stay in Thane while out on bail in Elgar Parishad case
MUMBAI: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Thursday allowed activist Sudha Bharadwaj’s plea to stay in Thane while on bail in the Elgar Parishad case. After the Bombay high court (HC) allowed her default bail plea, the special NIA court on December 8 granted her bail. At that time, the court asked her to stay within its jurisdiction. On Thursday however, the court modified that condition and allowed Bharadwaj’s plea to stay in Thane and asked her to report to the local Vartak Nagar police station in Thane once every fortnight.
Bharadwaj had moved court through her counsel Chandani Chawla saying that she was unable to find proper accomodation in Mumbai as it was expensive and that she wanted to stay in Thane with a friend. The prosecution had told the court that Bharadwaj should submit an affidavit of the person with whom she wished to stay and also an address proof.
Bharadwaj was arrested on August 28, 2018, and granted default bail on December 1 by the Bombay HC, underlining that a Pune sessions judge, who granted the police a 90-day extension on November 26, 2018, to file the charge sheet, did not have the jurisdiction to do so as only a special NIA court could hear UAPA cases.
The NIA court on Thursday also directed the superintendent of Taloja prison to preserve CCTV footage and provide clone copies of DVR to human right activist Surendra Gadling, who has also been arrested in the Elgar Parishad Case.
Gadling argued before special NIA judge D E Kothalikar that the prisons authorities were not providing him proper medicines and had even stopped his ayurvedic medicine. His letters were also not handed over to him neither was he provided warm water to bathe despite suffering from several shoulderrelated problems.
Gadling accused the jail authorities of giving arbitrary medical test figures without actually checking him. He told the court that whenever the jail authorities did give proper medical facilities, he did not have any technical evidence to prove it like CCTV footage after which the court directed the jail authorities to preserve the CCTV.
BHARADWAJ HAD SAID FINDING A PLACE IN MUMBAI WAS EXPENSIVE