Bhima Koregaon case: NIA seeks cancellation of bail for activists Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves

The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday moved a special court seeking that bail be cancelled for activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves in the Bhima Koregaon case, the Hindustan Times reported.

The agency alleged that the activists violated the conditions of their release by attending a gathering at the Mumbai Press Club earlier this year.

Gonsalves and Ferreira were arrested in August 2018 and spent almost five years in custody before the Supreme Court granted them regular bail in July 2023, with certain conditions.

On May 15, the NIA, in the same case, had sought that the bail granted to activists Varavara Rao and Sudha Bharadwaj be cancelled, citing the same Mumbai Press Club event. The agency had submitted then that the bail conditions for Rao and Bharadwaj barred them from contacting or communicating with other accused persons.

On Wednesday, Special Judge Chakor S Baviskar directed Ferreira and Gonsalves to file their replies to the NIA’s application. The matter will be heard on June 19.

In the application seeking the cancellation of bail of the activists, the NIA claimed that the gathering at the Mumbai Press Club was convened with the intention of propagating the ideology of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and decide on the future of the “Urban Naxal movement”, the...

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