Mumbai, Dec 1 : The Bombay High Court Today granted default bail to activist Sudha Bharadwaj for her involvement in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad violence case, while rejecting the plea of eight other accused in the same case.

While granting default bail to Bharadwaj, who is also a practicing lawyer, the Division Bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Najar directed her to approach the NIA court, which will decide the conditions of the bail.

The High Court rejected the plea of eight other accused, namely Sudhir Dawale, Dr P Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Advocate Surendra Gadling, Professor Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, after agreeing with the submission made by the prosecution.

The accused were arrested between June-August, 2018.

Bharadwaj had applied for default bail on the grounds that the Sessions Judge of Pune court, who had passed the order extending the time for Pune Police to file the charge sheet by 90 days, did not have jurisdiction to hear the application, as a special NIA court was already present to hear the cases of accused booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

However, the Maharashtra government and NIA had opposed the applications for default bail on the grounds that it was not maintainable.

For imposing certain conditions of release, the court directed Bharadwaj to approach the special NIA court by December 8, so that it may decide on her release and bail conditions.(UNI)