NIA appeal against bail for Sudha Bharadwaj rejected

New Delhi, Dec 07: The National Investigation Agency has rejected the appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency challenging the bail granted to Sudha Bharadwaj in the Elgar Parishad case.

The Bombay High Court had ordered default bail following which the NIA preferred an appeal.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had moved the top court earlier against the high court's December 1 order which that Bharadwaj, accused of being part of a conspiracy to overthrow the Union government, was entitled to bail and its denial would be in breach of her fundamental right to life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The High Court had directed that Bharadwaj, lodged in the Byculla women's prison, be produced before the Mumbai special NIA court on December 8, and conditions of her bail and date of release be decided.

Bharadwaj is the first among 16 activists and academicians arrested in the case to have been granted default bail. Poet-activist Varavara Rao is currently out on medical bail.

Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died in a private hospital in Mumbai on July 5 this year while waiting for medical bail. The others are in custody as undertrials. The high court had rejected the default bail plea filed by eight other co-accused in the case -- Sudhir Dhawale, Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the city's outskirts.

The Pune police had claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists. The probe in the case was later transferred to the NIA.