Bhima Koregaon case: Mumbai court rejects NIA plea to cancel bail for four activists

A Mumbai court has rejected the National Investigation Agency’s application to cancel the bail granted to four activists in the Bhima Koregaon case, reported Bar and Bench on Sunday.

The investigating agency had sought that the bail granted to activists Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves be cancelled on the grounds that they had attended a gathering at the Mumbai Press Club in January along with other persons accused in the case.

This violated their bail conditions, alleged the agency.

On Friday, Special Judge Chakor S Baviskar said that the activists may have spoken about the case when they met.

“By that alone, it cannot be concluded that, they committed breach of the condition imposed, that ‘the accused shall not come in contact or communicate with co-accused or any other person involved in similar activities’,” said the judge.

He also pointed out that the activists met each other inside and outside the courtroom during the hearing of the case.

“Hence, merely because a venue of the meeting/gathering of the accused changed, they cannot be said to have committed breach of the bail condition, as above and as alleged,” Bar and Bench quoted Baviskar as saying.

Rao was granted interim medical bail by the Bombay High Court in February 2021 and the bail order was confirmed by the Supreme Court in August 2022. Bharadwaj...

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