The Bombay High Court on October 17, 2022 rejected Pune based cultural group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) artiste Jyoti Jagtap's bail in Bhima Koregaon caste violence case.
A division bench of justices AS Gadkari and Milind Jadhav was hearing an appeal filed by Ms Jagtap from Byculla jail after her bail was rejected by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). She was arrested on September 8, 2020 a day after her friends from KKM — Ramesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe.
The NIA court on February 14 had rejected the bail of all three and said, "The Bhima Koregaon accused planned to end Modi Raj in a Rajiv Gandhi type incident."
Special judge DE Kothalikar had relied upon a letter allegedly issued by co-accused Rona Wilson and said, "The contents of the letter prima facie speaks that the Communist Party of India (M) was bent upon to end the ModiRaj i.e. the Modi led Government. Not only this, they were also thinking to go for another incident like the death of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, by targeting the road shows of Mr. Modi."
The court also noted, “Special public prosecutor has submitted that everyone knows about the manner in which the death of late Rajiv Gandhi had taken place. If these allegations are taken into consideration in proper perspective in that case there will be no hesitation to prima facie conclude that there is prima facie case against the applicants that they have done an act with intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of India and with intent to strike terror in section of the people in India by other means to likely to cause death of, or injuries to, any person or persons.”
KKM is a troupe made up of Dalit and working-class musicians and poets came together after the anti-Muslim Gujarat pogroms of 2002. Their songs became more militant due to the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of anti-Dalit atrocities at Ramabai Nagar in 1997 and Khairlanji in 2006. Some of these songs and performances feature in the National Award-winning documentary “Jai Bhim Comrade”. The group is alleged to have links with banned Communist Party of India (CPI-Maoist).
The trio were organisers of the Elgar Parishad event under ‘Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerana Abhiyan’ on December 31, 2017. They have been charged with sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Prevention Activities Act.
