A Division Bench of the Bombay High Court has granted bail to five men who were arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on the charge of conspiring to attack the 2017 Sunburn Festival in Pune. The July 30 order was made available late on Monday.
Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande, in their order, said that though an attempt was made to submit before the court that the trial has commenced, only two witnesses out of 417 witnesses have been examined and “the chances of timely completion of trial appear to be bleak”. They granted the accused bail “since speedy trial has received the recognition of fundamental right of a person facing accusations and being subjected to trial, and since all the appellants are incarcerated since 2018”.
Sujith Kumar Rangaswamy, Amit Ramchandra Baddi, Ganesh Dashrath Miskin, Shrikant Jagannath Pangarkar and Bharat Jaywant Kurane were arrested in 2018 after the ATS received a tip-off from an informant and raided the Thane premises of two other suspects, Sharad Kalaskar and Vaibhav Raut, and seized arms, ammunitions and explosives. An FIR was registered under various sections including those of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Right-wing activists
Additional Public Prosecutor J.P. Yagnik, who appeared for the State of Maharashtra, contended that the five persons belonged to right-wing groups ‘Sanatan Sanstha’ and ‘Hindu Janajagruti Samiti’ and decided to target the music festival as part of a plan to “oppose anti-Hindu elements in society”.
The court noted that the alleged plan to disrupt the Sunburn festival was never executed and it went off smoothly between December 26-31, 2017. The accused also argued that there is no evidence in the chargesheet about the alleged conspiracy and there are no independent witnesses.
The Division Bench was hearing appeals filed by the five accused challenging a Special Court order refusing them bail.
Published - August 06, 2024 10:34 pm IST
