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The court has noted that as almost five years have lapsed since the two accused were taken into custody, they had made out a case for grant of bail.
The Supreme Court today granted bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, accused in the Bhima Koregaon Violence case.
This case is related to inflammatory speeches made at a conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, the police claimed, triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.
NIA in its draft charges had claimed that the accused persons wanted to establish their own government and "wage a war against the nation". The accused in the case were charged under various sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
A division bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia noted that while the charges against the two accused were serious, that alone could not be the reason for denying bail.
The materials placed before us do not justify continued imprisonment of the appellants, the Court has further added.
While enlisting a few conditions on the grant of bail, Justice Aniruddha Bose, who has authored the judgment, added that any additional conditions may be imposed by the trial court.
Gonsalves and Ferriera have been directed to not leave the state of Maharashtra and surrender their passports.
Furthermore, the two accused have been asked to inform about their residing address to the NIA investigating officer, along with their mobile numbers, which shall remain active and charged round the clock.
"The location status on these phones shall be active at all times. They shall also appear weekly before SHO of the jurisdiction they reside at", the court has ordered.
Gonsalves’ had approached the Supreme Court, after his bail application was rejected by the Bombay High Court in 2021. He is lodged in Pune jail from August 28, 2018 in respect of offences punishable under UAPA.
The High Court had then granted bail to co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj, but had rejected the default bail plea of eight other co-accused in the case including Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling and Varavara Rao.
In August last year, Supreme Court's bench of Justices UU Lalit and SR Bhat had asked the NIA court to decide on framing charges against Vernon Gonsalves in three months.
Case Title: Vernon vs. State of Maharashtra | Arun vs. State of Maharashtra
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