Relief to Sudha Bharadwaj: SC dismisses NIA plea against bail order

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to consider a plea by the National Investigation Agency against default bail granted to lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj by the Bombay High Court in Bhima Koregaon case.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi dismissed the NIA's petition against the High Court's order of December 1.

The development would ensure that Bharadwaj would come out of jail on Wednesday.

The top court agreed with the High Court's view that the court which allowed the NIA time beyond 90-day period for filing the charge sheet under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against her was not competent to do so. If an investigating agency fails to file the charge sheet within the stipulated time, the accused is entitled to get default bail under the Criminal Procedure Code.

Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi appeared for NIA while senior advocate A M Singhvi for Bharadwaj.

Read | Bail, at last, for Sudha Bharadwaj!

The NIA had on December 2, approached the court challenging the Bombay High Court's December 1 order, granting default bail to Bharadwaj for her role in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad case.

Bharadwaj was taken into custody by Pune police on October 27, 2018. She sought bail on the ground that the judge who extended the 90-day period for filing a charge sheet was not designated by the central government. The chargesheet was filed only on February 21, 2019.

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