In the Bhima Koregaon case, the Supreme Court of India on January17 has directed that the bail plea of activist Jyoti Jagtap, an accused in the case, be heard alongside the appeal of co-accused Shoma Kanti Sen. This decision was made by a bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar, who were hearing Jagtap’s petition challenging the Bombay High Court’s rejection of her bail application.
Jyoti Jagtap has been in custody since September 2020, facing charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, in connection with the 2018 caste-based violence at Bhima Koregaon in Pune. She is also accused of having links with the banned far-left outfit, Communist Party of India (Maoists).
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj informed the bench that several appeals related to the same first information report (FIR) in the Bhima Koregaon case were pending before the Supreme Court, suggesting that they be heard together. Justice Bose responded,
“We will have to go by the evidence…what kind of evidence has come against each accused. One matter has been heard in part by Justice (Augustine George) Masih and myself…We will club [Jagtap’s] petition with that part-heard.”
He added,
“All of us are the same. But for convenience’s sake, it will be better if all of it is heard by the same bench.”
Advocate Aparna Bhat, representing Jagtap, agreed to the tagging of the matters but expressed concern over the prolonged period of Jagtap’s incarceration. Acknowledging the submissions, Justice Bose adjourned the hearing, stating,
“When this appeal is called out for hearing, it is jointly submitted by parties’ counsel that there are several appeals originating out of the same FIR. It would be in the interest of justice if all these appeals are heard together. In view of these submissions, we direct tagging of this appeal with [Shoma Kanti Sen’s] appeal.”
Previously, another bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices MM Sundresh and SC Sharma, had directed that the bail matter of co-accused Gautam Navlakha be tagged with connected matters. In July of the previous year, Justice Bose’s bench had postponed Jagtap’s bail hearing, citing the anticipated verdicts on Vernon Gonsalves‘ and Arun Ferreira’s bail pleas. The bench also allowed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the State of Maharashtra to file counter-affidavits within three weeks. Later, Gonsalves and Ferreira were granted bail by the Supreme Court after nearly five years in custody. The court, considering the length of their incarceration, held that the seriousness of the allegations alone could not justify continued detention.
When Jagtap’s bail plea was revisited, the court indicated that its decision would involve determining whether her case ‘fits the formula’ applied in the bail pleas of Gonsalves and Ferreira. Justice Bose remarked,
“There is a formula in which we have decided the other two. The question is whether this fits in that formula or not.”
He also mentioned that the test for deciding Jagtap’s bail would involve examining the contents recovered from her electronic devices to see if they disclosed an offense under Chapters IV and VI of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Jyoti Jagtap, a member of the cultural organization ‘Kala Kabir Manch’, along with 16 others, including Gonsalves and Ferreira, have been accused by the NIA of orchestrating the caste violence at Bhima Koregaon. The Pune police and later the NIA have contended that inflammatory speeches at the Elgar Parishad event, held to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima, incited the violent clashes between Maratha and Dalit groups near Bhima Koregaon. The accused were arrested for allegedly conspiring and planning the violence, with charges based on letters and emails primarily retrieved from their electronic devices.
In February of the previous year, a special NIA court rejected Jagtap’s bail application, a decision later upheld by the Bombay High Court in October. The High Court, while rejecting her application, held that dialogues in Kabir Kala Manch’s plays that ridiculed phrases like ‘Ram Mandir’, ‘Gomutra’, and ‘Acche Din’ – aimed at the democratically elected government – incited hatred and indicated a larger conspiracy. The bench stated,
“There are a number of innuendos in the text, words, and performance of Kabir Kala Manch which are pointed directly against the democratically elected government, for seeking to overthrow the government, ridicule the government…Kabir Kala Manch admittedly performed and incited hatred and passion by performing on the above agenda in the Elgar Parishad event. There is thus definitely a larger conspiracy within the Elgar Parishad conspiracy by Kabir Kala Manch and Communist Party of India (Maoist).”
Consequently, the court held that the NIA’s contention regarding Jagtap having conspired, attempted, advocated, and abetted the commission of a terrorist act was prima facie true.
The case details are as follows: Jyoti Jagtap v. National Investigation Agency & Anr. | Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 5997 of 2023.
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