Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case: Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, 3 other accused denied default bail

Mumbai: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday rejected the default bail applications of Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhavale, Mahesh Raut and Surendra Gadling in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.

The default bail applications had been filed before a Pune sessions court in 2018 where the case was being conducted.

The case had then been transferred to a special NIA court after the probe was taken over by the Central agency. The pleas had been pending till the accused recently sought that they be decided.

In their arguments seeking default bail, Advocate R Sathyanarayan along with advocate Neeraj Yadav appearing for Dhavale, Sen, Wilson and Raut had submitted that the report submitted by the investigating officer of Pune police seeking additional time to file the chargesheet did not qualify mandates under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the CrPC.

It was further argued that no chargesheet had been filed under the stipulated period of 90 days that had lapsed on September 5, 2018 and that hence they were entitled to be released on bail.

After the arrest of the five on June 6, 2018, the Pune police, which was then probing the case, had filed a report seeking an extension of time to file the chargesheet on August 30, 2018. The additional time was granted by the sessions court.

On September 27, 2018, the five had sought for default or statutory bail. The chargesheet had been filed on November 15 that year.