The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, who have been accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
In their judgment, a Bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia said that the five-year-long incarceration of the activists made them duly eligible for bail despite the fact that the offences they have been accused of are “grave”.
The two men have been in jail since August 2018. The activists are facing charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Five years in custody
“Considering the fact that almost five years have elapsed since they were taken into custody, we are satisfied that the appellants have made a case for grant of bail,” Justice Bose, who authored the judgment, pronounced in court.
The top court said that the allegations against the men were “no doubt serious, but for that reason alone, bail cannot be denied to them”.
Justice Bose referred to the material placed before it by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against the two men. However, the court concluded that “these materials cannot justify the continued detention of the appellants pending the outcome of the case”.
Bail conditions
However, the court noted that Gonsalves had earlier been convicted in a case under the 1967 Act, and that there was a pending criminal case against him. Justice Bose said that this called for the imposition of certain conditions along with the granting of bail.
For one, the court directed the activists not to leave the State of Maharashtra without the prior sanction of the trial court. The Bench also ordered them to surrender their passports and inform the NIA probe officer of their addresses.
They will each be given a mobile phone, both of which have to be kept switched on at all times. These phones should be paired with the phone of the NIA probe officer. The location status on the phones should remain active 24 hours a day.
Charged under UAPA
The case pertains to the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which was funded by Maoists, according to the Pune police. The inflammatory speeches made there led to violence at the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune the next day in which one person was killed, police had alleged.
Gonsalves and Ferreira were arrested and charged under the UAPA along with other activists Sudha Bharadwaj, P. Vara Vara Rao and Gautam Navlakha. They were initially under house arrest on the directions of the Supreme Court.
