Sudha Bharadwaj, 60, will have to submit her passport and stay in Mumbai.
Mumbai:
Lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj, one of 16 people arrested in Elgar Parishad case, was released this morning after serving more than three years in prison. Two days ago, the High Court rejected a plea by the National Investigation Agency for a default bail granted to her by the Bombay High Court on December 1. “We see no reason. nothing to interfere with the Supreme Court’s order. The plea has been rejected,” a bench of Judges UU Lalit, SR Bhat and Bela M Trivedi announced her release.
Bharadwaj was released from Byculla Women’s Prison after the NIA court set her bail conditions yesterday. She was the first person to be released on default bail in the case.
The case was previously handled by Pune Police and then taken over by the NIA. She was initially sent to Pune’s Yerwada prison while the state police were investigating the incident and was transferred to Byculla women’s prison after the NIA took over. The case has not yet been brought to trial.
As part of his bail condition, a special NIA court announced that the 60-year-old activist would have to submit a passport and stay in Mumbai. She has to get permission from the court to leave the city limits.
The special court said Bharadwaj was unable to contact the media about the case. Advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhry, who appeared for her, objected to the condition saying it was a violation of her right to free speech. She was given a temporary bail of Rs 50,000 and directed to the nearest police station – either physically or via a video call – every two weeks.
She has also been directed not to establish any form of communication with her accomplices in the case and not to make any international calls.
Ms. Bharadwaj was arrested on August 28, 2018, and subsequently placed under house arrest. She was then arrested on October 27, 2018.
The case was filed as a result of allegedly inciting speeches given in the Elgar Parishad conclave on December 31, 2017.
The speeches, police claimed, sparked violence near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the city the next day. The conclave is said to be supported by Maoists.
Bombay High Court released Bharadwaj on bail. as a ‘special court’ under Section 22 of the NIA Act.
Bombay High Court denied her plea for temporary bail on medical grounds last August, where she said she had co-morbidities, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, that put her at higher risk of Covid while in prison where an inmate tested positive at the time.
Activist priest Stan Swamy, 84, also arrested under UAPA counter-terrorism law in the Elgar Parishad case last year, died in July fighting to be released on medical bail.
Another defendant in the case, political activist and poet Varavara Rao, was released on medical bail earlier this year.
Along with Ms. Bharadwaj, eight other defendants – Sudhir Dawale, Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira – applied for bail on the same grounds but the High Court rejected their application on the grounds that the application had not been submitted on time and could therefore be considered.
Human rights group People’s Coalition for Civil Liberties welcomed the default bail granted to Sudha Bharadwaj and said it considered it “a vindication of the long campaign against UAPA by PUCL and other groups”. It represents a shift in broader public mood and judicial thinking toward the recognition of the UAPA as an unjust and undemocratic tool to stifle any position the government deems is problematic.” Dr. V. Suresh, PUCL’s secretary general, said that the organization’s “ultimate goal” is to repeal the controversial anti-terrorism law UAPA and ensure the release of all those was “unjustly imprisoned” under this law. Civil rights groups are also campaigning to withdraw charges against all 16 defendants in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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