The Bombay High Court on Wednesday reserved the order on a plea filed by eight accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case seeking default bail by challenging the Pune Sessions court order taking cognizance of the charge sheet filed.
A division bench of justices S.S. Shinde and N.J. Jamadar was hearing the petition filed by Surendra Gadling, Varavara Rao, Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.
Sessions judge K.D. Wadane, on September 5, 2019, rejected their default bail pleas. They are now seeking bail by on the grounds that the charge sheet was not filed before the magistrate court who could have committed the matter to the Sessions court.
Advocate General of Maharashtra Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said the petition was for quashing the order of the Sessions court. However, within the extended period of filing the charge sheet, it had been filed and, therefore, the accused are not entitled to default bail.
Bhima-Koregaon accused seek default bail again
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, representing the National Investigation Agency (NIA), said no other order by the Sessions judge was challenged, be it extension of the remand or transfer to the NIA. Only the order of taking cognizance of the charge sheet had been challenged. The special court would have jurisdiction of trial and the Sessions court the jurisdiction prior to trial.
Advocate Sudeep Pasbola, for the accused, had argued that the order passed by the Sessions court judge cannot be sustained as the government had constituted a special NIA court, and under it, the agency ought to have approached the magistrate court, as the charges included the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
