Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted default bail to lawyer-cum-activist Sudha Bharadwaj in the Bhima Koregaon case. The condition of the bail will be set by the special National Investigation Agency Court.
She has been in custody as an undertrial since her arrest in 2018.
Bharadwaj’s counsel and senior advocate Yug Chaudhry earlier told the HC that judge K D Vadane, who had taken cognizance of the Pune police’s charge sheet and remanded Bharadwaj and other accused persons to custody, was an additional sessions judge.
Chaudhry had earlier said that Vadane signed his court orders as a special judge, even though he was not a designated special judge.
On August 4, 2021, the HC bench led by Justice Shinde had reserved its order on Bharadwaj’s plea.
However, the high court rejected the bail applications of the other eight accused. They are Sudhir Dawale, Dr P Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Advocate Surendra Gadling, Professor Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves, and Arun Ferreira
It may be mentioned that on January 1, 2018, violence had erupted during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle. One person was killed and several others were injured in the incident. The police had filed 58 cases against 162 people in the matter.