News Analysis India

Tag: Elgar Case

  • Elgar case accused activist Gonsalves suffering from dengue, lawyer tells Mumbai court

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Activist Vernon Gonsalves, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, is suffering from dengue, his lawyer on Thursday informed a special court, which is hearing his plea for temporary bail on medical grounds.

    He has been admitted to the state-run J J Hospital in Mumbai and put on oxygen support, the lawyer said.

    As per his lawyer, the 65-year-old activist was also suspected to be suffering from pneumonia.

    Gonsalves’s plea for temporary bail on medical grounds is pending before the special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court.

    During the hearing on the plea before the court on Thursday, the lawyer told the court his client is suffering from dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease.

    Hospital authorities confirmed the development. Gonsalves was arrested by the Pune police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act after raids at residences and offices of several activists in connection with the case.

    ALSO READ | Elgar case: Special NIA court refuses bail to activist Gautam Navlakha

    The police had claimed provocative speeches made at the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave on December 31, 2017, were responsible for the caste violence around Bhima-Koregaon village in Pune district the next day during an event organised to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.

    One person was killed and several others were injured in the violence.

    The case, in which over a dozen activists and academicians have been named accused, was later taken over by NIA.

    MUMBAI: Activist Vernon Gonsalves, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, is suffering from dengue, his lawyer on Thursday informed a special court, which is hearing his plea for temporary bail on medical grounds.

    He has been admitted to the state-run J J Hospital in Mumbai and put on oxygen support, the lawyer said.

    As per his lawyer, the 65-year-old activist was also suspected to be suffering from pneumonia.

    Gonsalves’s plea for temporary bail on medical grounds is pending before the special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court.

    During the hearing on the plea before the court on Thursday, the lawyer told the court his client is suffering from dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease.

    Hospital authorities confirmed the development. Gonsalves was arrested by the Pune police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act after raids at residences and offices of several activists in connection with the case.

    ALSO READ | Elgar case: Special NIA court refuses bail to activist Gautam Navlakha

    The police had claimed provocative speeches made at the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave on December 31, 2017, were responsible for the caste violence around Bhima-Koregaon village in Pune district the next day during an event organised to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.

    One person was killed and several others were injured in the violence.

    The case, in which over a dozen activists and academicians have been named accused, was later taken over by NIA.

  • Elgar case: HC dismisses plea of Varavara Rao & 2 other accused seeking default bail 

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by Varavara Rao and two other activists, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, seeking a review of an earlier order of the HC which refused them default bail.

    The high court said it finds it difficult to hold there was any factual error in its earlier judgement and requires a review.

    “No case for review is made out,” a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar said.

    The HC rejected the petition filed by the three accused – Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves – challenging a previous order of the high court that refused to grant them default bail in the case.

    Rao is currently out in medical bail, while the other two petitioners are in jail.

    The three accused had challenged a December 1, 2021 order passed by the bench led by Justice Shinde that granted default bail to lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, a co-accused in the case, but denied default bail to eight other accused persons, including the three petitioners.

    At that time, the HC had said the accused persons, other than Bharadwaj, had not filed their pleas seeking default bail before the lower court within the time stipulated by law.

    In their pleas, filed through advocates Sudeep Pasbola and R Satyanarayanan, the accused said the HC’s order was based on a “factual error,” as it failed to note that the lower court had rejected the default bail pleas filed by Bharadwaj, the three petitioners, and two other co-accused persons through a common order.

    Hence, if the HC, in granting bail to Bharadwaj, set aside the lower court order of November 6, 2019, the others too were entitled to relief.

    The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had opposed the plea on the ground that the accused were seeking the same prayer of default bail under the guise of review, and that it was an abuse of the process of law and sets a wrong precedent.

    The case, now being handled by the NIA, pertains to the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which according to Pune police was funded by Maoists.

    The inflammatory speeches made there led to violence at the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune the next day, the police had alleged.

  • Elgar case: Court rejects medical bail plea of Shoma Sen

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: A special NIA court here on Tuesday rejected an application filed by academician Shoma Sen, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, seeking interim medical bail.

    Judge D E Kothalikar rejected 61-year-old Sen’s plea.

    Her application had cited her age and claimed that she suffered from multiple ailments including osteoarthritis, glaucoma and high blood pressure which could make her vulnerable to COVID-19.

    Sen was arrested in 2018 and is lodged in the Byculla women’s prison here since then.

    The court on Tuesday also extended till September 30 the interim bail granted to co-accused Rona Wilson.

    Wilson was granted bail to attend a mass arranged following his father’s death.

    Sen, Wilson and some other activists were arrested following the Elgar Parishad conclave held at Pune on December 31, 2017.

    According to Pune Police, the conclave was backed by Maoists, and `inflammatory’ speeches made there led to violence at Koregaon- Bhima war memorial the next day.

  • Elgar case: HC extends Varavara Rao’s bail till September 24; NIA opposes Rona Wilson’s plea

    By Express News Service

    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday extended the interim medical bail granted to 81-year-old Telugu poet Varavara Rao, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, till September 24.

    The court posted the matter for hearing on September 24 when it will decide on whether to extend the medical bail further or ask Rao to surrender. Rao is suffering from several neurological and age-related ailments. 

    Rao was granted bail on February 22 for six months on a cash bond of Rs 50,000 by a Division Bench of justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale.

    The NIA opposed the extension of bail to Rao, saying his medical report does not disclose any major aliment that necessitates the extension of bail or require him to reside at his home in Hyderabad to take treatment. 

    Rao has been living with his wife P Hemalatha at Malad East in Mumbai. Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Rao, informed the bench that Rao was living in a rented flat with his wife. He plead the court to allow him to reside in Hyderabad with his family.

    The NIA, which is probing the case, filed an affidavit saying, “The Taloja jail authorities have been following the jail code and providing the best medical facilities as per the jail manual. The surgery for cataract and hernia can be done in judicial custody under the supervision of doctors of government hospitals,” the NIA said.

    It however opposed an application filed by Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case accused Rona Wilson seeking temporary bail to to attend a mass organised in Kerala for his father who died last month.

    The NIA told a special court here the presence of the accused for the mass was not required, adding that the final rites were already over and Wilson was simply creating a ground for his release.

    Special prosecutor Prakash Shetty, appearing for the NIA, told the court there were chances of Wilson carrying out some illicit activity if released on bail, and that he may also influence witnesses.

    Special NIA Judge D E Kothalikar is likely to pass an order on Wilson’s plea on Tuesday.

    Wilson, who was arrested in June, 2018 and is presently lodged at the Taloja prison, sought temporary bail to go to Kerala and attend the mass.

    Wilson and several other activists were initially booked by the Pune police after violence erupted near Koregaon Bhima, on the outskirts of Pune city, on January 1, 2018, a day after the Elgar Parishad conclave was organised.

    Police had said inflammatory speeches and provocative statements made at the conclave, which it claimed was “Maoist backed”, triggered violence at Koregaon Bhima.

    The case was transferred to the NIA in January last year.

    On Monday, three other accused in the case, namely Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and Surendra Gadling, were produced before the court.

    The trio told the court they were produced before it after over a year, to which the judge said they would now be produced on every hearing.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • After US firm report, activist moves Bombay High Court for Elgar case stay

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: After a report emerged claiming jailed activist Rona Wilson’s computer had been tampered with and some evidence planted on it, his lawyers moved the Bombay High Court on Wednesday for a stay on proceedings against him and his co-accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists link case.

    The lawyers of Wilson, a prison rights activist, filed a plea in the HC seeking the proceedings against him and his co-accused be stayed in the 2017-18 Pune case and a Special Investigation Team be constituted to inquire into the alleged incident of tampering.

    Wilson was arrested in June 2018 following several raids at his residence in Delhi by the Pune police, which probed the case before it was handed over to the NIA.

    Before his arrest, the police claimed to have found several incriminating material on his computer, including a letter that he had allegedly written talking of the “need for arms, and a plan to overthrow the current government”.

    The petition filed in the HC cites a digital forensic report by a US-based firm that claims the letter and other evidence had been planted in a hidden folder on Wilsons computer by an unidentified cyber attacker who used a malware to control and spy on the laptop.

    As per the report cited in the plea, Wilson’s computer was infected with a malware, called “NetWire”, that was planted through an email on June 13, 2016.

    The case pertains to the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, the police alleged, was funded by Maoists.