Bhima Koregaon Case: Supreme Court Adjourns Jyoti Jagtap's Plea To August 7

While adjourning to August 7 a plea filed by activist and Bhima Koregaon case accused Jyoti Jagtap challenging denial of regular bail by Bombay High Court, the Supreme Court today expressed that it was not inclined to grant interim bail to her.

The matter was before a bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Aravind Kumar, which was informed by Senior Advocate Mihir Desai (appearing for Jagtap) that the case was erroneously listed for interim bail.

Taking note of the cause list (as per which the matter was listed for deciding question of interim bail), Justice Sundresh said, "interim bail we are not inclined...". In response, the senior counsel was quick to add, "We have not even asked for interim bail...it's wrongly shown...it will have to be heard. She is in jail for 3.5 years...".

Jagtap has been lodged in jail since September 2020 for offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 after being arrested in connection with the 2018 caste-based violence that broke out at Bhima Koregaon in Pune, and for having alleged links with the proscribed far-left outfit, Communist Party of India (Maoists).

It is worthwhile to mention that another Bhima Koregaon case accused - activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha - was granted bail by the top Court yesterday, subject to the payment of Rs.20 lacs for his house arrest. Navlakha was arrested on April 14, 2020. The Bombay High Court had granted him bail, noting that there was no material to infer that he committed a terrorist act, but stayed the order for 3 weeks to enable NIA to challenge the same. This stay was extended by the Supreme Court from time to time, and ultimately lifted yesterday.

The bench, led by Justice Sundresh and comprising Justice SVN Bhatti, noted that Navlakha has been incarcerated for over 4 years and the trial would take years for completion. 

Prior to that, on April 5, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Augustine George Masih granted bail to former Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen, who was also booked under the UAPA for alleged Maoist links, in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. Sen was arrested on June 6, 2018 and was in custody since then, awaiting trial. While passing the order, the bench took into account Sen's advanced age (with several ailments), prolonged incarceration, delay in commencement of trial and nature of accusations.

Background

Jyoti Jagtap, an activist and member of cultural organization 'Kala Kabir Manch', and 16 others was accused by the National Investigation Agency of being responsible for the caste violence at Bhima Koregaon in Pune.

The Pune police (and later NIA) contended that inflammatory speeches at Elgar Parishad – an event to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima – triggered the violent clashes that broke out between Maratha and Dalit groups near the village of Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra.

This led to the arrest of 16 activists for allegedly conspiring and planning the violence. They were charged with various provisions of the UAPA based on letters and emails primarily retrieved from their electronic devices.

In February, 2022, a special NIA court rejected Jagtap's bail application, which was later upheld by the Bombay High Court in October. While rejecting her application, a division bench of the high court observed that dialogues in Kabir Kala Manch's plays that ridiculed words/phrases like 'Ram Mandir', 'Gomutra', and 'Acche Din' – aimed at the democratically elected government – incited hatred and indicated a larger conspiracy. To quote the bench:

“There are a number of innuendos in the text, words, and performance of Kabir Kala Manch which are pointed directly against the democratically elected government, for seeking to overthrow the government, ridicule the government…Kabir Kala Manch admittedly performed and incited hatred and passion by performing on the above agenda in the Elgar Parishad event. There is thus definitely a larger conspiracy within the Elgar Parishad conspiracy by Kabir Kala Manch and Communist Party of India (Maoist).”

The High Court was of the view that NIA's contention regarding Jagtap having conspired, attempted, advocated and abated the commission of a terrorist act was prima facie true. “The Elgar Parishad event is thus a smaller conspiracy within the larger design and conspiracy of CPI (Maoist) to further its agenda…It is also seen that CPI (Maoist) has chalked out a detailed strategy for furtherance of its objective to overthrow the democratically elected government of our country and the Appellant and other co-accused are prima facie actively strategising the same,” it held.

Case Details: Jyoti Jagtap v. National Investigation Agency & Anr. | Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 5997 of 2023