The Supreme Court of India
Highlights
- SC has dismissed a petition of the NIA challenging the Bombay HC order granting bail Sudha Bharadwaj
- The NIA had moved the top court earlier against the high court's December 1 order
- Bharadwaj was arrested in the case by the Pune police on August 28, 2018
The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday dismissed a petition of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) challenging the Bombay High Court order granting bail to lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. The NIA had moved the top court earlier against the high court's December 1 order.
A bench of justices U U lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi refused to consider the submissions raised by the NIA, saying, “We see no reason to interfere with the high court order".
Bharadwaj was arrested in the case by the Pune police on August 28, 2018 under the provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. She was then placed under house arrest and was taken into custody on October 27, 2018. She has been in custody since then, except for two days in August 2019 when she was granted bail by another bench of the Bombay HC to attend her father's last rites.
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. The Pune police had claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists. The probe in the case was later transferred to the NIA.
(with PTI inputs)
