Bhima Koregaon: No relief for Surendra Gadling & ors, Supreme Court sets aside Bombay HC order

The Supreme Court today set aside the Bombay High Court’s order that had refused the extension of time for completion of investigation against Surendra Gadling and other activists in relation to the Bhima Koregaon violence..The extension of time granted to the Pune Police by the Special Court was upheld by this judgment delivered by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and L Nageswara Rao..This effectively means that 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..The appeal was filed against the order of the Bombay High Court, which had effectively set aside the Special Court’s order extending the detention of the accused for the purpose of completing the investigation into the Bhima Koregaon matter..On August 30, 2018, the Pune Police had sought to extend the detention of those detained under Section 43-D of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The provision allows for an extension of detention beyond the prescribed period of 90 days should the Public Prosecutor be able to satisfy the Court that additional time is needed to complete the investigation..The Special Court in Pune hearing this case had, on an application filed by the Public Prosecutor, extended the duration of detention by an order passed on September 2..This order was challenged by Gadling and others before the Bombay High Court, which allowed their appeal and refused to grant an extension of time. As a result, the State of Maharashtra approached the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s decision to set aside the extension of time..The Supreme Court had stayed the High Court’s order on October 29 which led to the detention of the accused persons..After hearing Senior Advocates like Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Anand Grover, and Indira Jaising for the accused activists, and Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi for the State of Maharashtra, the Supreme Court had reserved its judgment on January 10..The accused activists were arrested in connection to the event ‘Elgar Parishad’ held in Pune to mark the 200th anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle. This event was followed by violence and clashes..The arrested lawyers and activists were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and were alleged to have links with Left-wing extremist groups..Read Judgment: