Bhima Koregaon case: SC grants bail to Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira

The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Elgar Parishad members and activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, who had been accused of instigating the Bhima Koregaon violence and imprisoned since August 2018.

Granting the bail, the two-judge bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia said that the fact that both Gonsalves and Ferreira had spent almost five years in custody should be considered in accepting their bail plea.

The bench observed that even though the charges against the accused were serious in nature, that alone cannot be grounds for denying bail and allow for continued imprisonment while undertrial.

Reading the judgement, Justice Bose said, “…considering fact that almost 5 yrs have elapsed, we are satisfied they have made out case for bail. The allegations are serious, no doubt, but for that reason alone, bail cannot be denied to them….we have referred to materials available against them at this stage. This material cannot justify continued detention of appellant s pending final outcome.”

The bail pleas of the two accused were earlier rejected by the Bombay High Court in December 2021.

SC puts stringent bail conditions on Bhima Koregaon accused

Due to the serious nature of the charges, the Court imposed strict bail conditions on the two accused, including that they cannot leave the state of Maharashtra without obtaining the trial court’s permission, and that both have to surrender their passport to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The accused must also let the investigating officer know about their residential address and mobile phone numbers, and they could have only one mobile connection during the trial period. Both would have to keep their phones charged at all times, as well as keep the location status of the phone turned on to allow the investigative officer to track their location.

The final condition for bail was that the accused would have to report to the investigating officer once a week.

Gonsalves and Ferreira, along with 14 other activists, writers, and academics, were arrested in 2018 for inciting the violence that erupted in January 2018 near a war memorial at Pune’s Bhima Koregaon village in Maharashtra – a charge that the two accused strongly deny.

They had been arrested and charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which makes it extremely difficult to secure bail.

The NIA arrested the accused for their alleged inflammatory speeches at the Elgar Parishad meeting, which was organised to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima, which allegedly caused violent clashes between the upper caste and Dalit groups in the village. The NIA also accused the 16 arrested people to be a part of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).