The two were arrested in August 2018 on charges of inciting violence. (file)
The Supreme Court today granted bail to Elgar Parishad members Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case. The bail pleas of the two accused, arrested under stringent anti-terror UAPA charges, were rejected by the Bombay High Court in December 2021.
The two were arrested in August 2018 on charges of inciting violence. Since then, both of them were lodged in Mumbai's Taloja jail.
The Court granted bail considering the fact that they have been under custody for over 5 years. Although the allegations against them are serious, that alone cannot be the sole ground to deny bail and justify their continued detention pending the trial, the Court stated.
Senior advocates Rebecca John and R Basant, appearing for Mr Gonsalves and Mr Ferreira respectively, over the course of three days, argued that the material on the basis of which the National Investigation Agency sought to implicate the appellants, besides being indirect and having no 'nexus' with the appellants, was also grossly insufficient.
The lawyers argued that the documents that formed the basis for the charges under the anti-terror statute were neither recovered from the appellants' electronic devices, nor sent by or addressed to them.
Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, along with 14 others, have been accused by the National Investigation Agency of being responsible for the December 2017 caste violence that broke out near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune.
Five people allegedly having close Maoist links were arrested in June 2018 from Mumbai, Nagpur, and Delhi in connection with Elgar Parishad event -- to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima -- held on December 31, 2017, which had later triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district.
Provocative speeches were made at the Elgar Parishad event, which triggered the violence at Koregaon-Bhima, according to an FIR registered at the Vishrambaug police station after the event.
On November 10, the Supreme Court in an interim order permitted Gautam Navlakha, another accused in the case, to be placed under house arrest for a period of one month considering his health condition and old age. Later it extended his house arrest. He was arrested by the probe agency in April 2020.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted bail to 82-year-old activist P Varavara Rao in the case.