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Bombay High Court starts hearing on bail pleas of Bhima Koregaon accused
Arguing on the bail application for Gonsalves, Desai submitted that though his client’s name was not mentioned in the Bhima Koregaon incident, the police had arrested him on the basis of two undated letters found in another accused’s laptop.
The Bombay High Court (HC) on Tuesday, started hearing the bail applications of activists Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and Sudha Bhardwaj, who are in jail for their alleged involvement in the 2017 Elgar Parishad conclave, which purportedly led to the Bhima Koregaon violence on January 1, 2018.
A bench of justice Sarang Kotwal sought to know if all the three were seeking bail on similar grounds.
However, Gonsalves’s counsel Mihir Desai and Bharadwaj’s counsel Dr Yug Choudhary, clarified that though the three were arrested on similar grounds, they were seeking bail for different reasons.
Kotwal then allowed Desai to commence his arguments first and said the hearing for the bail applications of the three activists would be held everyday.
Arguing on the bail application for Gonsalves, Desai submitted that though his client’s name was not mentioned in the Bhima Koregaon incident, the police had arrested him on the basis of two undated letters found in another accused’s laptop.
He also took the bench through the first information report (FIR) filed after the Bhima Koregaon violence, which had left one dead and many injured, and pointed out that Gonsalves’s name did not feature in the FIR, and thus his arrest was not proper.
Desai then pointed that the prosecution relied on the two letters while opposing Gonsalves’s bail in the trial court but did not provide any evidence to show that his client had authored or received any email about Elgar Parishad. Hence, as there was no direct evidence to incriminate him, Gonsalves should be granted bail, Desai said.
The bench will continue the hearing on Wednesday.
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