The Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court rejected the interim medical bail plea filed by Bhima Koregaon case accused Shoma Sen on Tuesday. Sen’s medical bail plea was turned down along with those of three other co-accussed – Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, and Vernon Gonsalves.
The court also rejected the application filed by Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu and Sudha Bharadwaj seeking a copy of draft charges submitted by the NIA who are investigating the case, Live Law reported.
However, the Special Court has extended Rona Wilson’s temporary 14-day bail by three more days. He will now have to return to jail on September 30 instead of September 27. The court had granted him an emergency temporary bail of two weeks in August after his father’s demise.
As with the others named in the case, Nagpur University professor Sen, who is a women’s rights activist, was also arrested in 2018 and accused of having links with Maoists and carrying out “anti-national” activities.
Sen filed her bail plea on medical grounds submitting that she was vulnerable to the coronavirus as she is suffering from hypertension, blood pressure and other ailments. However, the NIA opposed her petition saying Covid-19 cannot be grounds for releasing any more prisoners in the case, and citing other pleas filed by her co-accused that had been rejected.
Previously, two other co-accused in the case had tested positive for Covid-19 while in the prison, including late Father Stan Swamy and Hany Babu.
Recommended
Since 2018, the police have arrested 16 activists and scholars under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the Bhima Koregaon case. The arrests were made after violence broke out during the annual celebration called the Elgar Parishad at Bhima Koregaon, a panchayat village in Maharashtra, to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon in January 2018. In 1818, Dalits of the village fought the battle as soldiers (mahars) in the British army and defeated the Brahmin Peshwa Bajirao II.
The arrested activists are accused of allegedly having links with Maoists and backing the Elgar Parishad at Bhima Koregaon.
All of them have denied the charges and all have been awaiting trial for the past three years.
Among the arrested activists, 82-year-old Telugu poet Varavara Rao is currently out on bail, while 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy died in custody on July 5.