Bhima Koregaon violence: Supreme Court grants bail to Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira

The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case of 2018 [Vernon vs State of Maharashtra and anr]..A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia said that while the charges against the two accused are serious, that alone cannot be the reason for denying bail."Allegations are serious but that does not mean bail cannot be granted. While forming our opinion of granting bail, we noted that he was earlier convicted of offences under 1967 Act. Hence, we propose to impose appropriate conditions while on bail. We set aside impugned order and release the appellant on bail," the Court directed.The Court imposed the following conditions on the two accused:- The two accused shall not leave the state of Maharashtra;- Both accused should surrender their passports;- Both should use only mobile phone each;- They should inform National Investigation Agency (NIA) officer about their address;- Mobile number should be shared with NIA and phones should be charged round the clock and location must be on and synced with NIA officer for tracking.The Court further said that if there is any breach of conditions, it will be open to the prosecution to seek cancellation of bail.Further, if any attempt is made to threaten witnesses, the prosecution can move court to cancel bail, the top court added..The Supreme Court had in March this year reserved its order in the case.BackgroundIn May last year, the accused in the case, including Gonsalves and Ferreira, filed pleas before the Supreme Court against Bombay High Court's December 2021 judgment refusing them default bail.The accused contended that there was an error in the judgment and, consequently, prayed that they be granted bail.Eight accused persons had been refused bail by the High Court on December 1, 2021, while another co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj was granted bail. The High Court, in its December 1 order, had distinguished Bharadwaj's plea from the other eight and noted that Bharadwaj’s application for default bail was pending when an application was made by the Pune Police seeking an extension of time to file the chargesheet.Those who were denied bail once again petitioned the High Court contending that there was an error in the December 2021 judgment and consequently, prayed that they be granted bail.However, on May 4, 2022, the High Court rejected that plea too, stating that there was no factual error in the December 2021 judgment as claimed.This led to the appeal before the top court.In August 2022, the Supreme Court asked the special NIA court to decide on framing of charges against Gonsalves within 3 months, while refusing to grant any interim relief at the time. Gonsalves' bail plea was, however, kept pending before the top court.The Court had directed the special court to segregate Gonsalves' trial from that of the other accused who are absconding.Supreme Court judge, Justice Dipankar Datta (formerly the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court) had recused from hearing the present bail applications earlier..ArgumentsSolicitor General Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitors General SV Raju and KM Nataraj, and advocate Kanu Agrawal appeared for the respondents before the Supreme Court.They had argued that the charges were serious, and the case cannot be compared with that of Anand Teltumbde whose bail was upheld by the top court earlier.Long periods in custody cannot be a ground to show leniency to terror-accused, it was emphasised.Further, any delay in the trial was not attributable to the National Investigation Agency (NIA); rather it was due to the fact that multiple accused kept filing discharge applications.Senior Advocates for the appellants, Rebecca John and R Basant, pointed out that the accused had been incarcerated for over five years with charges yet to be framed and the trial yet to begin.They argued that there was no material on record directly and substantially implicating the two in the case..[Read judgment]