Bhima-Koregaon Case | Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Shoma Sen's Plea For Interim Bail On Medical Grounds

A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and SVN Bhatti was hearing a petition challenging a January 17 order of the Bombay High Court, by which it directed Sen to approach the special court trying her case, for bail. She has been lodged in jail since June 2018 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 outfit, Communist Party of India (Maoists).

The top court issued notice in Sen’s special leave petition in May this year, along with co-accused Jyoti Jagtap’s bail plea. Today, before directing the matter to be adjourned until October 4 at the behest of the National Investigating Agency (NIA), the division bench issued notice in the interim bail application filed on medical grounds by Sen through Advocate-on-Record Nupur Kumar, besides granting leave in the main petition.

During the brief courtroom exchange, Justice Bose asked Senior Advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Sen, “Is this case similar to the two who were recently enlarged on bail by this court?”

Last month, co-accused Gonsalves and Ferreira were granted bail by the Supreme Court after almost five years in custody. Justice Bose, along with Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, besides taking into consideration the length of incarceration, also held that the seriousness of the allegations alone could not be a ground to deny bail and justify their continued detention.

Highlighting Sen’s advanced age and ill health, as well as the period spent under incarceration, Grover replied, “It is even more egregious. There is no reason for her to be in custody. She has been inside for more than five years. The trial has not begun yet. Even charges have not been framed.”

Background

Shoma Sen, a professor of English literature and former departmental head at the Nagpur University, along with 15 others have been accused by the National Investigation Agency of being responsible for the caste violence at Bhima Koregaon in Pune, although one of them – Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy passed away in July 2021.

The Pune police and later, the 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 16 activists being arrested for allegedly conspiring and planning the violence and charged with various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act based on letters and emails primarily retrieved from their electronic devices.

Sen was arrested by the Pune police on June 6, 2018. In the following year, a sessions court in Pune rejected the bail applications of Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhavale, Varavara Rao, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, and Rona Wilson, before the probe was transferred to the National Investigation Agency in January 2020. In June of the same year, a special NIA court rejected the interim medical bail plea of Sen, who was 61 years old at the time, as well as a similar plea by octogenarian activist and poet Varavara Rao.

In 2021, a common application for default bail was filed by Sen and eight other accused, which was rejected by a special court in Pune. This was challenged in the Bombay High Court, but even as it granted default bail to activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj in December 2021, a division bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar refused to grant default bail to the eight others – Sudhir Dawale, P Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves, and Arun Ferreira. One among them – Telegu poet and activist Varavara Rao – has been released on bail by the Supreme Court on medical grounds last year.

Earlier this year, in January, the Bombay High Court disposed of another bail plea filed by Professor Sen. Noting that the NIA had filed a supplementary charge sheet against her, the division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and PD Naik asked Sen to approach the special court. It observed that the circumstances had changed since the Pune sessions court denied her bail in view of the supplementary charge sheet, and the special court should be given the opportunity to reconsider her plea.

Case Details

Shoma Kanti Sen v. State of Maharashtra & Anr. | Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 4999 of 2023