[Bhima Koregaon] NIA opposes default bail plea in Bombay High Court, cites embargo on review

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has opposed the plea filed by three accused in the Bhima Koregaon case before the Bombay High Court seeking review of the judgment refusing them default bail [P Varavara Rao & Ors. v. State of Maharashtra & Anr.].The NIA stated that the review petition filed by Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira is barred by law as their prayer was seeking an alteration or review of the final judgment passed by the High Court on December 1, 2021. The affidavit cited Section 362 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that puts an embargo on Courts to alter or review its judgment or final order disposing of a case, "except to correct a clerical or arithmetical error".It contended that the prayer sought by the three accused asked for alteration of the observation made final by the High Court after due verification of records and hearing, after which the plea was disposed of.The accused cannot seek reliefs which are expressly barred by the CrPC, the NIA stated. .NIA also claimed that the accused were trying to bring in a new case and blame the Court when their entire pleading in the application was defective and insufficient."The applicants are virtually trying to shift the blame upon this Court when their entire pleading in criminal application is totally defective and insufficient. The applicants are trying to introduce a new case by way of filing the present interim application." the affidavit stated..Instead, the NIA suggested that the accused ought to have approached the appellate court instead of the High Court by introducing fresh arguments. "By filing present application in the final order seeking default bail in the criminal petition where this court was pleased to pass judgment is unsustainable in eyes of law and liable to be dismissed at the threshold," the NIA reply said. .NIA also pointed out that while the order was uploaded in December 2021, the present application was filed in second week of January 2022, after a period of 1.5 months.In view of these observations, the agency sought the dismissal of the interim application on the ground that the application was devoid of any merits. .Eight accused had been refused bail by the High Court on December 1 while another co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj had been granted bail.The High Court in its December 1 order, while demarcating Bharadwaj's plea from the other eight, had 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.The present plea came to be filed after the High Court refused to intervene in a plea by eight accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case seeking the rectification.The three accused submitted in their plea that the present review application arose on the account of a certain factual error in the judgment and if that error is not rectified then the same will lead to a "gross miscarriage of justice".In the plea filed through advocate R Satyanarayanan, the accused sought correction of the error and consequently, prayed that they be granted bail.