SC grants bail to Vernon Gonsalves & Arun Ferreira in Bhima Koregaon case

New Delhi, July 28 : Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, who are facing charges under UAPA for their alleged Maoist links in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case.

A bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Aniruddha Bose and also comprising Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia pronounced the verdict on the bail pleas of Bhima Koregaon accused Gonsalves & Ferreira.

The Court granted bail to the accused duo, considering the fact that they have been under custody for over 5 years.

Although allegations against them are serious, that alone cannot be the sole ground to deny bail and justify their continued detention pending the trial, the Top Court said.

The Apex Court today set aside the Bombay High Court’s order denying them bail.

It directed that they shall be released on bail on such conditions as the Special NIA Court may impose. The Court stated that one of the conditions should be that they shall not leave the State of Maharashtra till the trial is over.

Also, they have to surrender their passports and inform the NIA their addresses and mobile phone numbers. They can have only one mobile connection during the period. Their mobile phones should be charged round the clock and the location must be kept on and shared with the NIA officer for live-tracking. They shall also report to the investigating officer once a week.

The Apex Court had reserved the judgment on March 3, after hearing from the respective parties, probe agencies and petitioners, all the submissions in the case.

Both the accused Gonsalves & Ferreira are facing charges under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act) for their alleged Maoist links.

Senior advocate Rebecca M. John, representing Gonsalves, said the commonality between Dr. Teltumbde’s grant of bail by the Bombay high court last year and the evidence in the present case to draw the claim of parity with the high court’s bail order.

Gonsalves and Ferreira have filed their respective bail applications at the Supreme Court challenging the order of the Bombay High Court of October 15, 2019, rejecting their bail pleas.

Gonsalves and Ferreira are accused in the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad case and charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities and (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA).

Additional Solicitor General of India (ASG) K.M. Nataraj, representing the National Investigation Agency (NIA), while referring to the 2021 Supreme Court’s judgment in Union of India versus K.A. Najeeb in which the court allowed the grant of bail to a UAPA accused.

According to the ASG, Najeeb’s case considered factors such as long incarceration of more than five years, the non-inclination of the prosecution to finish the endless screening of witnesses, and the maximum punishment of imprisonment of eight years on conviction.

The ASG submitted that none of these factors apply in the present case.

The ASG further argued that considering the nature of the allegations, the gravity of the offence and the evidence, long incarceration could not be the sole ground for the grant of bail.

On the claim of the petitioners seeking parity with the order of the Bombay High Court that granted bail to their co-accused, scholar, writer and activist Dr. Anand Teltumbde, the ASG said that the evidence against Dr. Teltumbde alleged mere membership of the banned Community Party of India (Maoist) (CPI-Maoist), whereas, in the present case, the allegations against Gonsalves and Ferreira are more severe.