Researcher Rona Wilson and activist Sudhir Dhawale
After six years of jail without trial, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to researcher Rona Wilson and activist Sudhir Dhawale in the Bhima-Koregaon Elgar Parishad case. Both have been in jail since 2018, though the charges were not yet framed.
While granting the bail, a division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Kamal Khata considered the fact that the duo have spent over six years in prison as undertrials. Hearing the case, the bench noted that the prosecution has cited over 300 witnesses, and thus there is no possibility of the trial concluding in the near future.
Also Read | Activist Gautam Navlakha Gets Bail From Supreme Court In Bhima Koregaon Case
The court granted bail on surety of Rs 1 lakh to each of the two accused, and they appeared before the special NIA court for the trial hearing.
Both Wilson and Dhawale are among the 16 activists, academicians, and lawyers booked in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.
Nine of the total individuals were arrested by the Pune Police in 2018, while the other seven were arrested by the NIA after taking over the investigations in January 2020.
All the arrested individuals were accused of being associated with the banned CPI (Maoist) and delivering speeches furthering the Maoist cause during an Elgar Parishad conference in Pune on December 31, 2017. These remarks allegedly incited unrest the following day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in western Maharashtra, resulting in one death.
Also Read | Bhima Koregaon Case: Professor Hany Babu Withdraws Bail Petition From Supreme Court
The 16 Defendants
Lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj secured default bail in 2021, former IIT professor Anand Teltumbde was granted bail in 2022, and activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were granted bail by the apex court in 2023. Telugu poet P. Varavara Rao was granted bail for six months on medical grounds in February 2021. Although the 83-year-old’s bail was extended, the state high court rejected his plea for permanent bail.
Gautam Navlakha was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on December 19 last year. Activist Mahesh Raut was granted bail on September 21 last year, but the NIA’s challenge has kept him behind bars as the top court continues to uphold the stay.
The 84-year-old priest and tribal rights activist from Jharkhand, Father Stan Swamy, passed away in custody while waiting for interim bail on medical grounds in July 2021. A US-based forensic company on July 10, 2024 claimed that the digital evidence used to arrest Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy in the Bhima-Koregaon case was “planted” on the hard drive of his computer.
