The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Maharashtra government to file their replies to a plea by three accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case challenging the rejection of their application for default bail.
P Varavara Rao, 83, Vernon Gonsalves, 64 and Arun Ferreira, 46, all currently lodged at the Taloja Central Jail, filed a review petition before a division bench of justices S.S. Shinde and N.J. Jamadar. They have sought review of the judgment passed on December 1, 2021, contending that there were certain factual errors that arose out of the judgment and that there would be gross miscarriage of justice if the error was not rectified.
NIA and the State have been asked to file their replies in two weeks. The matter has been adjourned to February 21.
On December 1, 2021, the same bench granted bail to co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj, though it rejected the bail pleas of eight others.
Their review petition mentions, “In the order rejecting their bail, the High Court came to the conclusion that the applicants had not availed the right by filing default bail applications after expiry of the initial period of 90 days and before filing of chargesheet.”However, they point out,all the accused had filed for default bail and the order that granted bail to Ms. Bharadwaj was a common order. Therefore they were also entitled to the same relief.
