Bhima-Koregaon activist Sudha Bharadwaj to be released from jail on ₹50k bail bond
Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested in August 2018 under the provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
Bhima-Koregaon activist Sudha Bharadwaj, who was granted relief by the Supreme Court a day ago, could be released from prison on furnishing a cash bond of ₹50,000 and any one of the other sureties, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Mumbai ruled on Wednesday. The court allowed Bharadwaj to submit the cash surety, which would enable her to walk out of the jail either on Wednesday itself or Thursday.
Bharadwaj, who is currently lodged at Byculla jail in the city, will also be required to reside in the jurisdiction of the court after her release and cannot leave Mumbai without its permission, the order stated. While granting the lawyer-activist default bail last week, the Bombay high court had also directed her to be produced before the special NIA court in the city on December 8 to decide upon the conditions of her bail and the date of release.
The case against Bharadwaj 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.
Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested in August 2018 under the provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
After the Bombay high court granted her default bail on December 1, the NIA had moved the Supreme Court against her bail order. However, the top court junked the agency's plea yesterday and upheld the Bombay high court's bail order. A bench of justices UU Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat, and Bela M Trivedi also 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.
Although Bharadwaj is the first among 16 activists and academicians arrested in the case to have been granted default bail, the pleas of others, including poet-activist Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, and Arun Ferreira, were rejected.
