Take decision on bail pleas in Bhima-Koregaon case soon: HC

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday directed a special court in Pune to decide on the bail application of six accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence expeditiously,

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday directed a special court in Pune to decide on the bail application of six accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence expeditiously, even while a separate application to access cloned copies of the seized electronic records is pending.

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Senior advocate Mihir Desai told the bench of justice SS Shinde that the special Pune court had refused to hear bail application for the six accused – Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale, Dr Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut and Varavara Rao – after two of them requested cloned copies of the electronic records recovered from their possession.

The Pune court, after hearing the bail pleas over six months, had reserved its order on May 10. On May 13, two accused applied for the cloned copies. Owing to this and the fact that the judge who had heard the bail plea had retired, the new judge said that the bail applications would not be decided on till the plea for the copies was decided.

Desai said that the accused had asked HC to issue directions to the investigators to expedite the process of providing cloned copies. However, on Wednesday, all the accused said they have no objection if their bail application was heard without providing cloned copies of the electronic records. Desai said that as the accused had been in jail for almost a year and three months, they were willing to allow the bail applications to be heard on the basis of the charge sheet and hard copies of the electronic records provided by investigators.

Additional public prosecutor Aruna Pai submitted that providing cloned copies would take some time and hence, the bail applications should not be kept pending. In light of all parties agreeing to the bail applications being heard without cloned copies being provided, Shinde dismissed the petition seeking directions to the special court and asked it to decide on the bail pleas expeditiously.