Nishka Srinivas Veluvali –
Published On: December 1, 2021 at 18:00 IST
On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court, awarded Default Bail to Sudha Bharadwaj, one of the Accused in the Bhima Koregaon Case.
Sudha Bharadwaj, will have to approach the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court for her release after fulfilling the Bail conditions.
However, the Bombay High Court quashed the Bail Petition put forth by the other 8 Accused.
The Petitioner had filed the Bail Plea on the grounds that Pune Sessions Court was not approbated to hear the apprehension of the Case filed against them in 2018-19. The petition stated that only Special Court under NIA Act was authorised to hear the cases charged under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The Bail Pleas were filed under Section 439,139,482 and 167(2)(a)(i) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) that is read along with the Section 43(d)(2) of the UAPA.
The Bench consisting of Justice SS Shinde and Justice NJ Jamadar observed that as Bharadwaj’s Plea claimed, the Pune Judge KD Vadane was not authorised as a Special Court under NIA Act.
Advocate Yug Chaudhry appearing for Sudha Bharadwaj stated that, “The Petitioner and her Co-Accused were charged Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which is a scheduled offence as per NIA Act; thus, their case should have gone before the Special Court and not before Judge Vadane.”
Advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni and Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh on behalf of NIA informed the Court that the Cases assigned to National Investigation Agency would go before a Special Court but this Case was not under NIA till January 24, 2020.
The Case was being investigated by Pune Police and hence it was heard by the Judge Vadane, who extended the Charge-sheet filing period on November 26, 2018 and took the notice of the same in February 21, 2019.
The Bench upon hearing the Bail Plea granted Sudha Bharadwaj Default bail and asked her to appear before NIA Court on 8 December for her release after setting up of the Bail Conditions.