The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea by the NIA against the order of the Bombay High Court granting bail to activist Sudha Bharadwaj in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Last week, the Bombay High Court had granted default bail to Bharadwaj in the case. She had been arrested in 2018 on charges of ties to Maoists. The Bombay High Court had directed that Bharadwaj be produced in a special NIA court on December 8 to decide her bail conditions.
On Monday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the NIA, sought urgent hearing of the matter by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices U.U. Lalit, S. Ravindra Bhat and Bela M. Trivedi said on Tuesday there was no reason for it to interfere in the High Court's order.
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The bench noted “extension of time for investigation and detention under provisions of Section 43D(2) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure could have only been done by the special court hearing NIA cases,” Bar and Bench reported.
“When special courts manned by special judges was in existence then why did you make this application for extension before a magisterial court,” Bar and Bench quoted the SC bench as saying.
