THE SUPREME Court on Friday directed the special court in Mumbai conducting the trial in the Elgaar Parishad case to decide on framing of charges and discharge pleas of the accused within three months. The delay in the framing of charges has meant that four years after the Pune Police made nine arrests and the National Investigation Agency made seven arrests in the case, the trial in the 2018 case is yet to begin.
While the National Investigation Agency (NIA) told the apex court that the process of framing of charges was delayed as the accused were filing multiple applications, the accused, on the other hand, have submitted before the special court that the NIA should first provide all the documents and electronic evidence to them before moving on to the next stage of the trial.
The Supreme Court was hearing a bail application by activist Vernon Gonsalves, after the Bombay High Court rejected his plea.
Of the 16 accused arrested in the case — nine by the Pune police in 2018 and seven by the NIA which took over the probe in 2020 — Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, passed away in July last year while in judicial custody.
Telugu poet and activist Varavara Rao was granted bail on medical grounds this month by the Supreme Court and lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj was granted default bail in December last year. Gonsalves and 12 others continue to remain in prison after their bail pleas have been rejected by the special court and the Bombay High Court from time to time.
The case so far
The case dates back to the Elgaar Parishad event held in Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017. A day later, as violent clashes broke out between Maratha and Dalit groups near Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra, police alleged that the violence was instigated by “inflammatory speeches” given at the Elgaar event in Pune.
Dalit groups and many others, including NCP chief Sharad Pawar, then in the Opposition, accused right-wing leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide of instigating the violence through hate speeches.
The Pune Police then began conducting raids at the homes and offices of those who had attended the Elgaar event and seized their electronic devices and other documents.
In 2018, the Pune Police arrested Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferreira, Rao, Gonsalves and Bharadwaj. It was alleged that they were members of the banned organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist) and that they were involved in furthering its activities.
In March that year, then BJP government led by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had given a clean chit to Bhide, saying the probe was continuing.
In December 2019, a month after a coalition of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress came to power as the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, the central government transferred the case to the NIA. By then, the Pune Police had filed two chargesheets against the nine accused.
In 2020, the NIA arrested Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, Jyoti Jagtap, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Stan Swamy. A third chargesheet was filed in the case in October 2020.
In August 2021, the NIA submitted to the sessions court the draft charge against the accused. The draft charges include the sections under which the prosecuting agency proposes to charge the accused based on the evidence it has collected and submitted before the court. The accused face various sections, including under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Over a year after the draft’s submission, the final charges are, however, yet to be framed in the case.
The accused had told the court that they are yet to receive cloned copies of their electronic devices that the Pune Police and NIA seized from them. The accused submitted that since the evidence forms a key part of the NIA case, in order to prepare their defence, they need copies before the trial starts.
In April, the special court had directed both the NIA and the accused to take steps to proceed with the case. The NIA had then submitted that nine cloned copies were submitted by it and that the other copies too would be provided.
The accused had submitted that their other applications are pending as well. In June, the court disposed of pending pleas by the accused seeking default bail — it rejected their pleas. Some of the accused have also filed discharge applications. The Supreme Court has directed the trial court to decide on the discharge pleas and the framing of charges simultaneously within three months.
Two of the accused, Dhawale and Gadling, have also moved the High Court to challenge the transfer of the case to the NIA, stating that the Centre did so after the MVA came to power. Last year, Wilson filed a petition referring to a report by a US-based independent forensic firm, Arsenal Consulting, which said that his computer was “infected with a malware” planted two years before his arrest in 2018.
Both the pleas are pending.
The accused had also sought for their devices to be submitted to the Supreme Court-appointed committee which is looking into allegations of unauthorised surveillance using Pegasus spyware. The committee has submitted its report to the apex court.
The politics of the case
In May this year, the Pune Police submitted a report to the State Human Rights Commission saying it had dropped Bhide from the investigation after finding no evidence against him in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Many had then pointed to how Pawar, who was quick to blame the Bhima Koregaon violence on right-wing forces, including Bhide, at a time when the BJP was in power, maintained his distance from the Elgaar Parishad case when his party was part of the state government.
Bharip Bahujan Party chief Prakash Ambedkar, who had led protests seeking the arrest of Bhide and Ekbote over the Bhima Koregaon violence, had earlier told The Indian Express, “The inaction of the police against right-wing leaders is not surprising. Both the BJP and NCP used the Bhima Koregaon violence to pursue their respective political agendas.”