Bombay HC grants bail to Sudha Bharadwaj in Bhima Koregaon case

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted default bail to lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case.

However, the court rejected the bail applications of the eight other accused: Sudhir Dawale, Dr P Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Advocate Surendra Gadling, Professor Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira – all of them arrested between June and August of 2018.

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The HC directed Bharadwaj to be produced before the Special National Investigation Agency court on December 8 to decide the conditions of bail.

A two-judge division bench had reserved Bharadwaj’s bail plea for judgement on August 4 and the criminal application by eight others on September 1. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh for NIA sought a stay on the operation and implementation of the order in view of two recent Supreme Court judgements. However, the court refused relief saying it has already considered the orders in its judgement.