Sudha Bharadwaj, lawyer and activist, one of the acussed in Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case under the provisions of UAPA, was released this morning after over three years in jail. The Supreme Court had rejected a petition by the National Investigation Agency, challenging a Bombay High Court order on her bail. Bharadwaj, who was lodged in Byculla prison, is the first among 16 activists and academicians arrested in the case to have been granted default bail.
As part of her bail conditions, a special NIA court had said that the 60-year-old activist will have to submit her passport and stay in Mumbai. She has to seek permission from the court to leave city limits.
Bharadwaj can’t interact with the media on the case, the special court had said. Advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhry, appearing for her, had opposed the condition stating that this is an infringement of her freedom of speech. She was released on a provisional cash bail of ₹ 50,000 and has been directed to visit the nearest police station – physically or through a video call – every fortnight.
She has also been directed to not establish any kind of contact with her co-accused in the case, and not make any international calls.
Poet-activist Varavara Rao is currently out on medical bail. Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died in a private hospital here on July 5 this year while waiting for medical bail.
The others are all in custody as undertrials. The high court had rejected the default bail plea filed by eight other co-accused in the case – Sudhir Dhawale, Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira. The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the city’s outskirts.
(With PTI inputs)
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