Elgar Parishad case: HC seeks NIA reply to bail plea of four accused

Mumbai: Four accused in the Elgar Parishad case have approached the Bombay high court appealing against a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court order which rejected their bail applications.

The four—Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sena, Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale—have filed the appeal stating that they were eligible for getting bail on the same lines as another co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj and the Pune sessions court did not have the jurisdiction to extend the time for filing chargesheet.

The HC issued notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and also sought to know from the agency whether Surendra Gadling, another accused in the case, could appear in person to argue for his appeal which was filed earlier.

The division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice PD Naik before which the appeals of all the five accused were posted for hearing was informed that they had applied for default bail in a Pune court in 2018 on the grounds that the Pune police, which was investigating the case at the time, had not filed the chargesheet within the stipulated time and had sought extension which was granted by the court.

The appellants claimed that the extension was not legal and since the NIA had taken over the case in 2020 and the special court was hearing the case, their default bail application remained pending. The appeal also claimed that they were entitled to default bail similar to the one which was granted by the HC to Bharadwaj in December 2021.

In all, nine accused had applied for default bail in the HC. However, the court had rejected the plea of eight stating they did not avail the right to be released on default bail before their chargesheets were filed.

The NIA court had in June last year rejected the default bail applications of the five accused, who had been in jail since 2018.

While hearing Gadling’s appeal, the bench was informed that he wished to appear in person and argue his case. The bench then asked the counsel for the NIA to ascertain with the investigation officer whether the accused could be allowed to do so. Gadling who is a lawyer himself and was provided an advocate from the legal aid had written to the HC seeking permission to appear in person.