A Mumbai court on Tuesday began hearing the first of the seven discharge applications filed by the accused in the Bhima Koregaon case of 2018. .The hearing on discharge is the first step towards framing of charges, thus, kick-starting the trial in the case which has been pending in the pre-trial stage since 2018. This development comes in compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court in August asking the special court to decide on framing of charges within 3 months.The accused, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Dr Anand Teltumbde and Jyoti Jagtap had already filed for discharge and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had responded to the same opposing it vehemently. On Tuesday, three more discharge applications came to be filed, by accused Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha and Hany Babu.Special NIA judge Rajesh Katariya directed the NIA to respond to the same..Meanwhile, the judge commenced hearing on the applications from Dhawale's application.On Dhawale's application, advocates R Satyanarayanan and Neeraj Yadav, submitted that he had lent his name to the Elgar Parishad event along with other organisers like retired judges Justices PB Sawant and BG Kolse Patil.Dhawale who owns a Marathi left-leaning publication, was arrested on June 6, 2018 after an FIR was registered 8 days after the Elgar event, his application stated. Dhawale's lawyers stated that the speech called for protecting democracy and for peaceful resistance in accordance with the fundamental right to speech under Constitution of India. Satyanarayanan contended that the present case was registered against him solely because he called upon others not to vote the BJP back to power.It was further submitted that the addition of two more persons as accused in FIR without them being present at the event showed the malafides and prejudiced intent of the investigation to facilitate planting of fabricated electronic records in their computer hard disks and stage a pre-planned discovery..The NIA in its reply-affidavit said that the grounds in the discharge applications of Dhawale, Raut, Teltumbde and Jagtap were not valid. The investigation revealed that Maoist cadres were coordinating with the event and garnering support for the same, it was contended. The reply included letters exchanged between various alleged members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) which allegedly appreciated the rioting in the rural parts of Pune.“’Bhima Koregaon agitation was very effective, and the unfortunate death of a youth must be exploited to prepare future agitations and propaganda for the intentions behind the Bhima Koregaon incident’ can be seen in this letter, as it is mentioned that Dalit sentiments are clearly against the Brahmin cantered agenda of BJP/RSS,” the reply highlighted.The agency also discovered from the investigation that the the policy of the banned organisation was allegedly to mislead the Dalits in the society and take them on the path of violence..Meanwhile, the Special Court also rejected an application filed by octogenarian P Varavara Rao seeking permission to live in Hyderabad for 3 months in order to conduct cataract surgery."If the applicant is permitted to go and stay at Hyderabad for three months, the framing of charge would get prolonged. In such situation, it would not be appropriate to allow the application," Special judge Katariya held..[Read order]
A Mumbai court on Tuesday began hearing the first of the seven discharge applications filed by the accused in the Bhima Koregaon case of 2018. .The hearing on discharge is the first step towards framing of charges, thus, kick-starting the trial in the case which has been pending in the pre-trial stage since 2018. This development comes in compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court in August asking the special court to decide on framing of charges within 3 months.The accused, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Dr Anand Teltumbde and Jyoti Jagtap had already filed for discharge and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had responded to the same opposing it vehemently. On Tuesday, three more discharge applications came to be filed, by accused Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha and Hany Babu.Special NIA judge Rajesh Katariya directed the NIA to respond to the same..Meanwhile, the judge commenced hearing on the applications from Dhawale's application.On Dhawale's application, advocates R Satyanarayanan and Neeraj Yadav, submitted that he had lent his name to the Elgar Parishad event along with other organisers like retired judges Justices PB Sawant and BG Kolse Patil.Dhawale who owns a Marathi left-leaning publication, was arrested on June 6, 2018 after an FIR was registered 8 days after the Elgar event, his application stated. Dhawale's lawyers stated that the speech called for protecting democracy and for peaceful resistance in accordance with the fundamental right to speech under Constitution of India. Satyanarayanan contended that the present case was registered against him solely because he called upon others not to vote the BJP back to power.It was further submitted that the addition of two more persons as accused in FIR without them being present at the event showed the malafides and prejudiced intent of the investigation to facilitate planting of fabricated electronic records in their computer hard disks and stage a pre-planned discovery..The NIA in its reply-affidavit said that the grounds in the discharge applications of Dhawale, Raut, Teltumbde and Jagtap were not valid. The investigation revealed that Maoist cadres were coordinating with the event and garnering support for the same, it was contended. The reply included letters exchanged between various alleged members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) which allegedly appreciated the rioting in the rural parts of Pune.“’Bhima Koregaon agitation was very effective, and the unfortunate death of a youth must be exploited to prepare future agitations and propaganda for the intentions behind the Bhima Koregaon incident’ can be seen in this letter, as it is mentioned that Dalit sentiments are clearly against the Brahmin cantered agenda of BJP/RSS,” the reply highlighted.The agency also discovered from the investigation that the the policy of the banned organisation was allegedly to mislead the Dalits in the society and take them on the path of violence..Meanwhile, the Special Court also rejected an application filed by octogenarian P Varavara Rao seeking permission to live in Hyderabad for 3 months in order to conduct cataract surgery."If the applicant is permitted to go and stay at Hyderabad for three months, the framing of charge would get prolonged. In such situation, it would not be appropriate to allow the application," Special judge Katariya held..[Read order]
