Presenting the case to grant bail to human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, her advocate told the Bombay High Court on Friday that “Pune Police has not produced any document from her house in the charge sheet and the affidavit filed by them” linking her in the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.
Advocate Yug Chaudhry told a single Bench of Justice S.V. Kotwal that an undated letter found from another accused, Surendra Gadling, also lodged at Yerwada jail, names Ms Bharadwaj but the prosecution does not know the authorship of the letter.
Mr. Chaudhry read out a letter that mentioned Ms. Bharadwaj working on tribal prisoners, conducting jail survey, providing legal aid and taking care of pending trials in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. He asked, “what is objectionable about this letter” and reiterated that it is typed and unsigned.
Mr. Chaudhry said the affidavit filed earlier by the additional public prosecutor Aruna Pai, says “all accused members (Arun Ferreria, Rona Wilson, Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Varavara Rao, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut) are active members of banned organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist) likely to strike terror.” Explaining the matter highlighted in the affidavit, Mr. Chaudhry said, “all the accused are anti-fascists.”
He read out another letter, relied upon by the Pune Police to charge Ms. Bharadwaj with the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and asked, “what role is attributed to me? How do they incriminate me?”
He said Ms .Bharadwaj is a Professor at National Law University, Delhi, has a young daughter and has been in jail for a year.
Mr. Chaudhry will continue his arguments on September 16 when he will also address the lower court’s order rejecting Ms. Bharadwaj’s bail.
