Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to the two accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case observing ‘no possibility of the trial to conclude in the near future’, LiveLaw reported.
The bench of Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Kamal Khata pointed to the long incarceration of Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale alongside citing the non-framing of charges against them.
They were booked under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The bench reportedly said: ‘They are in jail since 2018. Even the charges in the case are yet to be framed. The prosecution has cited over 300 witnesses, and thus there is no possibility of the trial to conclude in the near future.’
The bail was granted over bonds of Rs 1 lakh along with the condition of having them to report to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) every Monday.
Rona and Sudhir, among the16 rights' activists and rationalists booked in the case, are accused of having links to the banned outfit CPI (Maoist) and waging a war against the country.
The Pune police raided prison rights activist Rona Wilson’s Delhi home on 17 April 2018 and arrested him alleging role in the violence at the Bhima Koregaon memorial in January.
Police later claimed they had found a letter on the hard disk of Rona’ computer. It allegedly had contents of a plot to ‘overthrow the government’ and to assassinate PM Modi.
Sudhir – who is a Dalit rights activist—was also arrested connecting to the incident.
He was one of the main organisers of the Elgar Parishad event commemorating 200 years of Bhima Koregaon battle.
A contingent of Mahar soldiers joining the East India Company’s army fought against the Peshwa and won the battle.
Violence marred the celebrations when pro-Hindutva groups attacked with swords and stones the Dalits gathered at the site.