After denying default bail to the eight accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, the Bombay High Court on Thursday rejected their plea seeking a correction of the ‘factual errors’ in the dismissed bail order, Bar and Bench reported.
Recently, while granting default bail to 60-year-old lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj on December 1, the High Court had rejected the bail applications of the eight other accused in the same case – Sudhir Dawale, Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Advocate Surendra Gadling, Professor Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.
The application stated that the reason for granting bail to Bharadwaj was a common order which included the names of Gonsalves, Rao, and Ferreira and that the date of their arrest was common, making all of them at par. It also mentioned that the statutory bail of all these accused was initially rejected by Pune Sessions Court by a common order.
Seeking liberty from the court to file review, they submitted that though the court is restricted from altering or reviewing its judgment after it is signed, the present application for “speaking to minutes” would not lie. The court said that there was no requirement for liberty from it.
“We need not grant you any liberty. If review is maintainable, then that can be filed. These are not just ‘factual errors’, we have made observations based on those facts,” the court said.
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A total of 16 activists and scholars were detained since 2018, under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the Bhima Koregaon case. Violence broke out during the annual celebration called the Elgar Parishad at Bhima Koregaon village in Maharashtra in January 2018, to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon of 1818. It commemorates the victory of Dalits of the village, who fought the battle as soldiers (mahars) in the British army against the brahmin ruler, Peshwa Bajirao II.
The arrested activists, who supposedly backed the Elgar Parishad are all accused of having Maoists links. All of them have denied the charges and have been awaiting trial for the past three years.