‘Continued detention not justified’: SC gives bail to 2 in Bhima Koregaon case

After the Supreme Court granted them bail, Gonsalves and Ferreira’s lawyers on Monday moved the sessions court to fix the conditions for their release on bail and requested the court to allow cash bail, as arranging sureties would delay their release. The court rejected the prayer.

Bhima Koregaon case: The Supreme Court court set aside the Bombay high court order in December 2021 that denied default bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Fereira

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Fereira in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, holding that the bail cannot be denied on the ground that the charges against them were serious.

“No doubt the allegations are serious, but on that ground alone bail cannot be denied. The materials placed on record do not justify their continued detention,” a bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia said on Friday, taking note of the long incarceration of the accused who have been behind bars since August 2018.

The court set aside the Bombay high court order in December 2021 that denied them default bail as in their case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) failed to file the charge sheet within time.

Gonsalves and Fereira are among the activists, lawyers, poets and scholars arrested by NIA in connection with alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017. This, the police claimed, triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city, leading to death of one person and injuries to several others. NIA claims the accused have Maoist links and indulged in anti-national activities.

The top court ruled that the two will be released on bail subject to conditions to be imposed by the special NIA court. These conditions will require that the two accused surrender their passport and do not leave Maharashtra without sanction from the NIA court concerned.

They will also have to communicate their place of residence to the investigating officer and will be allowed to use only one mobile phone, which will have to be constantly active to ensure they are accessible 24X7 to the investigatng officer and that their location can be identified at any point. In addition, they will be required to report to the local police station where they are staying every week.

In case of violation of any of the above conditions, the court allowed NIA to approach the special court directly for cancellation of bail. Further, the court said, in the event, they seek to threaten or influence any witnesses, NIA will be at liberty to demand for their bail to be suspended.

The court said that these strict conditions have been imposed since one of the accused, Vernon Gonsalves was earlier convicted for an offence under UAPA and faces another criminal case where the allegation is similar to that levelled in the Bhima Koregaon case where he is accused of links with banned Maoist outfit, Communist party of India (Maoist).

Additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju appearing for NIA opposed bail for Gonsalves and pointed out that a Nagpur sessions court sentenced him to five years imprisonment under UAPA. According to NIA, he had continued to be involved in subversive activities after his release in this case.

Senior advocate Rebecca John appearing for the accused, however, underlined the it was a matter of his liberty and the trial was not expected to end in the near future in view of the long list of witnesses to be examined. To keep them incarcerated till the completion of trial would be a violation of their fundamental rights, she argued.

After the Supreme Court granted them bail, Gonsalves and Ferreira’s lawyers on Monday moved the sessions court to fix the conditions for their release on bail and requested the court to allow cash bail, as arranging sureties would delay their release. The court rejected the prayer.

One of the court’s conditions for release on bail pertains to the appellants’ phones being active and charged 24/7. “During this (bail) period… both appellants shall keep the location status of their mobile phones active, 24 hours a day, and their phones shall be paired with that of the Investigating Officer of the NIA to enable him, at any given time, to identify the appellants’ exact location,” the court said in the terms and conditions.

The appellants are also forbidden to talk about the case on any platform or to the media and have been ordered not to influence any witnesses or tamper with evidence. In case of any breach, the court has given liberty to the NIA to move for cancellation of their bail.

In May last year, the accused in the case, including Gonsalves and Ferreira, filed pleas before the Supreme Court against the Bombay high court’s December 2021 judgment refusing them default bail. They contended that there was an error in the judgment and, consequently, prayed that they be granted bail.

Lawyer Vernon Gonsalves is among the activists, lawyers, poets and scholars arrested by the NIA in connection with alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017. This, the police claimed, triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial, leaving one dead and several injured. The NIA claimed the accused had Maoist links and indulged in “anti-national activities”.