Elgar Parishad case: NIA opposes plea of Varavara Rao, 2 other activists

The National Investigation Agency NIA on Thursday sought that the Bombay High Court dismiss a petition filed by poet Varavara Rao and two other activists arrested in the Elgar ParishadMaoist links case seeking a review of an earlier order of the HC that refused to grant them default bailThe NIA in its affidavit said the accused were seeking the same prayer of default bail under the guise of review and that it was an abuse of the process of law and sets a wrong precedentThe probe agency filed its affidavit in response to a review petition filed by the three activists Varavara Rao Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves challenging a previous order of the high court that refused to grant them default bail in the caseWhile Rao is currently out on medical bail the other two activists are lodged in jailThe NIA said through the petition the accused are seeking to alter the observation made by the HC after verification of record and hearing of the caseThe applicants ought to have approached the appellate court in appeal instead of this court by introducing fresh arguments and seeking default bail which has been already decided by this court as unsustainable the NIA saidOnce the matter has been adjudicated and dismissed by this court the applicants cannot come up with the same prayer under the guise of review This is an abuse of the due process of law and completely thwarts the systematic procedure of law and the same sets a wrong precedentiquest the agency said in its affidavitThe three accused have challenged an order of December 1 2021 passed by the bench led by Justice Shinde that granted default bail to lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj a coaccused in the case but denied default bail to some other accused persons including the three petitionersAt that time the HC had said the accused persons other than Bharadwaj had not filed their pleas seeking default bail before the lower court within the time stipulated by lawThe NIA in its reply said section 362 of the Criminal Procedure Code CrPC puts an embargo on the court to alter or review a judgment passed by the HC on meritsHowever in their pleas filed through advocates Sudeep Pasbola and R Satyanarayanan the accused said the HCs order was based on a factual error for it failed to note the lower court had rejected the default bail pleas filed by Bharadwaj the three petitioners and two other coaccused persons through a common orderHence if the HC in granting bail to Bharadwaj set aside the lower court order of November 6 2019 the others too were entitled to reliefA division bench headed by Justice S S Shinde posted the matter for further hearing on March 2The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31 2017 which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the KoregaonBhima war memorial located on the Maharashtra citys outskirtsThe Pune Police claimed the conclave was backed by MaoistsThe NIA later took over the probe into the caseThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever