[Bhima Koregaon] Arun Ferreira moves Bombay High Court seeking default bail; Justice Revati Mohite Dere recuses

Lawyer and activist Arun Ferreira has moved the Bombay High Court seeking default bail in the Bhima Koregaon riots case of 2018..The petition was listed before Bench led by Justice Revati Mohite Dere who recused from hearing the matter on Friday, without assigning any reason. The appeal will now be heard by another Bench..In his petition filed through advocate R Satyanarayanan, Ferreira stated that his case is at par with that of co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj who had been granted default bail by a co-ordinate bench of the high court in December 2021..Ferreira and seven other accused were refused bail by the High Court on December 1, 2021 while Bharadwaj was granted bail.The High Court in its December 1 order, while demarcating Bharadwaj's plea from the others noted that Bharadwaj’s application for default bail was pending on the date the application for extension of time to file the chargesheet was made by the Pune Police..Ferreira pointed out that the distinguishing factor between the two was that Bharadwaj’s bail plea was filed on the 91st day, while Ferreira’s was on the 94th day.Ferreira submitted that while granting bail to Bharadwaj, the High Court had observed that the extension of time for investigation and detention under provisions of Section 43D(2) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure had not been done by a court of competent jurisdiction.The benefits of the finding ought to extend to him as well, it was contended..Ferreira was arrested in August 2018 for his alleged involvement in the riots that took place in Bhima Koregaon post the Elgar Parishad event held on January 2018.Ferreira along with two other accused sought for correction of an alleged error in the December 2021 judgment and consequently, prayed that they be granted bail.Rejecting the plea for lack of factual errors, the Bench held that the applications for bail listed in the review application had never been placed before the Court.Post this rejection, the present appeal came to be filed.