SC junks NIA’s plea against default bail to activist Sudha in Bhima case
The SC, on Tuesday, junked the NIA plea seeking the quashing of the Bombay high court order granting default bail to social activist Sudha Bharadwaj—one of the accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregoan- Elgar Parishad violence case.
Finding no infirmity with the Bombay high court order granting default bail to Sudha Bharadwaj, a bench comprising Uday Umesh Lalit, Justice S. Ravindra Bhat, and Justice Bela M. Trivedi said that the extension of time for investigation and detention under provisions of Section 43D(2) of the UAPA and Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure could have been done only by the special court hearing NIA cases and not the magisterial court as had happened in the instant case.The NIA suffered a jolt in an urgent hearing which was sought by solicitor general Tushar Mehta, on December 6, contending that social activist Bharadwaj, who
was under incarceration along with eight others and was granted bail by the Bombay high court, will get released on December 8. Granting bail to Sudha Bharadwaj, a bench of Justice S.S. Shinde and Justice N.J. Jamadar had directed that she be produced before the special NIA court that would decide on the conditions on which she would be released. She is currently lodged in Mumbai’s Byculla women’s prison.
Sudha Bharadwaj and eight others are accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad violence case and for having alleged links with outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist.
The matter relates to the alleged singing of “objectionable songs” and making of instigating comments, speeches, sloganeering at ‘Elgar Conference’ by accused Sudhir Dhawale and others at Bhima Koregaon ‘Shouryadin Prerna Abhiyan’ organised by the Kabir Kala Manch on December 31, 2017.