‘Activist implicated for being V-P of same lawyers’ group as Gadling’

Advocate for activist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj on Wednesday informed the Bombay high court (HC) that his client has been implicated because she was the vice-president

Advocate for activist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj on Wednesday informed the Bombay high court (HC) that his client has been implicated because she was the vice-president of the same lawyers’ group, of which co-accused Surendra Gadling was secretary.

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Gadling is being charged for using the group’s forum to carry out Maoist activities. Bhardwaj was arrested over the Bhima Koregaon incident in 2018.

The bench of justice Sarang Kotwal, while hearing the bail application of Bhardwaj, was informed by her advocate Yug Choudhary that there was no evidence to directly implicate his client. He claimed that while the Pune police had arrested Bhardwaj based on documents that had allegedly been written by her, they have not proved as much. The said documents were not recovered from her computer or laptop but were in the form of letters allegedly written by Bhardwaj from Gadling and Rona Wilson’s computer.

Choudhary submitted that Gadling was the secretary of the Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) and Bhardwaj was its vice-president. He said that IAPL was not a banned organisation. “Just because Gadling misused his position in the organisation, did not mean that Bhardwaj as an officer bearer was involved in his activities.”

Choudhary reiterated his stand that the letters in the name of Bhardwaj, which were recovered from computers of other accused, are not admissible as they are unsigned, unverified and have not been examined under relevant sections of the criminal procedure code.

The court scheduled for arguments to be continued on Friday.