The Supreme Court, on January 13, countermanded the Bombay High Court’s order that had refused the extension of time for completion of investigation against Surendra Gadling and other in relation to the Bhima Koregaon violence.
Earlier an extension of time duration for probe in the case was provided to Pune police by a Special Court, which was later overruled by the Bombay High Court. However, the latest judgment delivered by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and L Nageswara Rao upheld the Special Court’s order on the accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
After the judgment of the bench of the CJI, the five activists, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhavale, will now have to seek regular bail and are not entitled to default bail which is granted at the lapse of the prescribed period of ninety days.
After the time extension of the investigation was restrained by the Bombay High Court, an appeal was later filed against it, which had effectively set aside the Special Court’s order. Earlier, on August 30, 2018, the Pune Police had sought to extend the detention of Surendra Gadling and others under Section 43-D of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Earlier, filling a chargesheet in Elgar Parishad case, the Pune Police claimed that these people were planning to assassinate PM Modi as they procured arms and ammunition from them. The police cited several documents seized from the Maoist leaders to make the claim on PM Modi’s assassination plan.
A 5,000-page chargesheet that was filed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Shivaji Pawar in the court of additional sessions judge KD Vadhane stated that the accused were directly involved in promoting the propaganda of the banned Maoist outfit – Communist Party of India (Maoist) and were planning to overthrow the NDA government. With the rising popularity of PM Modi, the opposition has stooped to plan his assassination.
The chargesheet also claimed, “It is the policy of the CPI (Maoists) to mobilize Dalit community’s sentiments and provoke them to take violent path against the system. As a part of this strategy, Sudhir Dhavale and other members of Kabir Kala Manch (KKM, a cultural group) spread hatred by giving inciting speeches, presenting distorted history and staging provocative skits and songs.”
After the arrest of the activists, the Special Court issued the provision to allow an extension of detention beyond the prescribed period of 90 days. The Special Court in Pune hearing this case had extended the duration of detention by an order passed on September 2.
Later, the order was challenged by Bhima Koregaon accused Surendra Gadling and others before the Bombay High Court, which detained the extension. Further, the State of Maharashtra approached the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s decision to set aside the extension of time. Finally, The Supreme Court had stayed the High Court’s order on October 29 which led to the detention of the accused persons.
It is quite disheartening to note how certain people in our society are working towards creating a ruckus and disharmony in the country in the name of ‘political dissent’ and are resorting to unlawful activities. The most unfortunate part is the fact that these people are indulging the youth from various institutions and are molding their mind, against their own country!