Bhima Koregaon: SC Grants Conditional Bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira

The Supreme Court  has granted bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, who were charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence. The court considered that they had been in custody for over five years and emphasized that serious allegations alone cannot be the sole reason for denying bail.

Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira have been held in Mumbai’s Taloja jail since 2018 and had approached the Supreme Court for bail after their bail pleas were rejected by the Bombay High Court. They argued that the High Court granted bail to their co-accused, Sudha Bharadwaj, but denied it to them.

Despite granting bail, the Supreme Court imposed certain conditions on Gonsalves and Ferreira. They are not allowed to leave Maharashtra without the trial court’s permission, and they must surrender their passports to the National Investigation Agency’s investigating officer. Additionally, there are restrictions on their place of residence and the use of mobile phones, among other conditions.

The Bhima Koregaon case is related to a conference held in Pune’s Shaniwar Wada to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon-Bhima, which led to subsequent violence resulting in the death of a young man and injuries to several others.

In August 2018, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, along with Sudha Bharadwaj, P Vara Vara Rao, and Gautam Navlakha, were arrested and charged under the UAPA. Initially, they were placed under house arrest based on the Supreme Court’s directions.

The Maharashtra government extended the tenure of the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry, which was set up in February 2018 to investigate the cause of the violence. The commission, headed by retired High Court judge Justice J N Patel, and with former chief secretary Sumit Mallick as the second member, is responsible for probing the events surrounding the Bhima Koregaon violence.