The National Investigation Agency has appealed to the Supreme Court against default bail granted to advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, who was arrested and has been in jail for over two years in the Bhima Koregaon case.
The Bombay 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 cannot be thwarted on technical grounds 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 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 at Taloja Central Jail.
Ms. Bharadwaj was taken into custody by the Pune police in 2018. The charge-sheet was filed in February 2019.
