Bhima-Koregaon case: NIA seeks urgent listing of its appeal against bail for Sudha Bharadwaj

The lawyer was arrested and has been in jail for over two years.

Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested and has been in jail for over two years in the Bhima Koregaon case. File Image.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) sought in the Supreme Court on Monday an urgent listing of its appeal against the bail granted to lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj in the Bhima-Koregaon case.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the agency, said the default bail order of the Bombay High Court came into effect from December 8, and the appeal needed to be heard quickly to prevent it from becoming infructuous.

Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana agreed to consider and asked Mr. Mehta to share the number of the petition.

Ms. Bharadwaj was arrested and has been in jail for over two years in the Bhima Koregaon case.

The High Court had upheld Ms. Bhardwaj’s indefeasible right to personal liberty.

It said the guarantee of personal liberty under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution could not be thwarted on technical ground that her plea for default bail was premature. That would be a “too technical and formalistic view of the matter”. The NIA court did not have the jurisdiction to extend the period of detention beyond the stipulated 90 days, the High Court had said in its bail order on December 1.

The High Court had, however, denied bail to Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in the case. They are lodged in Taloja Central Jail.

Ms. Bharadwaj was taken into custody by the Pune Police in 2018. The chargesheet was filed in February 2019.