Bhima Koregaon case transferred to Special NIA Court, Mumbai after Pune Court finds it is "left with no jurisdiction"

The Special Court (ATS) in Pune hearing the Bhima Koregaon case has ordered the transfer the case to a Special NIA court in Mumbai finding that it has no jurisdiction left to try the case after the National Investigating Agency (NIA) was handed over the investigation of the case. .The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge SR Navander on an application moved by the NIA, rejecting the pleas opposing the transfer by the accused in the case. Earlier, judge Navender had dismissed the bail pleas filed by six of the accused in the case. .Bhima Koregaon: What the Pune Sessions Court held while rejecting bail pleas of six accused [Read orders].In the matter of transfer, the counsel for the accused had argued, inter alia, that the Pune Court does not have the power to transfer the case on its own. Further, it was submitted that the NIA Act also calls for cases to be tried by the local court, which in this case is the Pune Court. .The Court, however, agreed with the NIA that its jurisdiction to try the case stood ousted once the investigation in the case was transferred from the state agencies to the NIA. The judge found that the case could now be tried exclusively by the NIA Court in Mumbai, in view of Section 11 of the NIA Act. It added that the Mumbai Court was the local court for the purposes of this case. .The judge proceeded to find the court is not barred from committing the case to the NIA court, being the court of appropriate jurisdiction. In this regard, he opined that the procedure being adopted is analogous to committing of a case by a Magistrate to a Sessions Court under Section 323, CrPC, where the Magistrate finds that the matter ought to be tried by the Sessions Court..“The same analogy has to be applied in the present case also. When this Court has left with no jurisdiction to try the case, it has to be made over to the Court having jurisdiction i.e. Special (NIA) Court, Mumbai.”.The Court proceeded to note that cases have been been similarly committed to the appropriate jurisdictional court on earlier occasions. Therefore, it opined, ."... it is expedient to sent the record and proceedings of the car along with seized property to the Special (NIA) Court, Mumbai, without seeking any direction from the High Court.".This apart, the Court also found no merit in contentions forwarded that the NIA no longer had anything to do with the case as the investigation in the matter was already completed earlier. .The Court proceeded to order that all the accused in the case be produced before the Special NIA Court at Mumbai on February 28..The investigation into the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence, which took place during an annual celebratory gathering, was earlier being dealt with by the Pune Police. The investigation in the case was handed over to the NIA last month. .The accused in the matter include activists Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Varavara Rao, Sudhir Dhavale, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha. The accused were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and other penal provisions..In a related development, the Bombay High Court today rejected the anticipatory bail pleas filed by Teltumbde and Navlakha. .[Read the Pune Court order here]