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Journalism of Courage
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection to a plea filed by four accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, seeking default bail. Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson had moved HC challenging an order of the special NIA court that rejected their default bail applications last June.Moreover, the court sought assistance from the NIA to decide whether it can allow Surendra Gadling, another accused in the case, to appear in person before the HC to argue for his default bail. The NIA court had rejected the default bail applications of the five accused, who had been in jail since 2018.
They had in 2018 approached a Pune court seeking default bail, while stating that an extension granted to the police to continue their detention in order to file a chargesheet was not legal. In 2020, while the case was transferred to the NIA and moved to a special court in Mumbai, their default bail plea remained pending.
Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson told Justice Ajey S Gadkari and Justice Prakash D Naik that the NIA court judge had failed to consider that the sessions judge in Pune had no jurisdiction to give more time to the prosecution agency to complete its probe. The appeal also claimed that they were entitled to default bail similar to the one granted by the HC to co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj in December 2021. While granting a default bail to Bharadwaj, the HC had rejected pleas of eight other accused who had applied for bail on similar grounds. The court had said they did not avail the right to be released on default bail before their chargesheets were filed. The HC, while hearing Gadling’s plea, asked the NIA lawyer to check with the investigation officer whether the accused can be permitted to appear in person before the court.
