The Supreme Court will hear activist Jyoti Jagtap’s bail plea in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case on September 8. The NIA’s plea against Mahesh Raut’s bail is also likely to be taken up.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India will on Monday hear the bail plea of activist Jyoti Jagtap, who was arrested in 2020 in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
The matter will be taken up by a bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma. On the same day, the bench is also likely to hear a separate petition filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against the bail granted to activist Mahesh Raut.
Raut was earlier given bail by the Bombay High Court, but the order was stayed after the NIA sought time to challenge it before the apex court.
In its order against Jagtap, the Bombay High Court had observed that she was an active member of the Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) group.
The court noted that during a stage play at the Elgar Parishad conclave, which was held in Pune on December 31, 2017, the group raised not only aggressive but also highly provocative slogans.
The judges wrote,
“We are of the considered opinion that there are reasonable grounds for believing the allegations or accusations of the NIA against the appellant having conspired, attempted, advocated and abetted the commission of a terrorist act as prima facie true.”
According to the NIA, the Kabir Kala Manch is a front organisation of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
The Bombay High Court had earlier dismissed the appeal filed by Jagtap, who is also known as a singer-activist. She had challenged a February 2022 order of a special court which had refused to grant her bail.
The Elgar Parishad conclave took place on December 31, 2017, at Shaniwarwada, a historic 18th-century palace-fort in the heart of Pune city. Jagtap was accused of performing and raising provocative slogans at the event along with other members of KKM.
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She was arrested in September 2020 and has remained in jail since then.
Investigators claim that the provocative speeches and performances at the Elgar Parishad gathering directly led to the outbreak of violence at Koregaon-Bhima on the outskirts of Pune on January 1, 2018.
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