The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea by activist Jyoti Jagtap on September 21 challenging an order of the Bombay High Court for declining her bail after being arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. Jagtap moved the apex court challenging the October 17, 2022 high court order which refused to grant her bail after it stated that the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) case against her was "prima facie true" and that she was part of a "larger conspiracy" hatched by the banned outfit CPI (Maoist), according to PTI.
Advocate Aparna Bhat, representing the petitioner, told the bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar, that the top court should fix a date for hearing the matter as Jagtap has been in custody for about three years.
The counsel which appeared for the NIA has sought two weeks and said that the counter affidavit has gone for vetting.
"Let the respondent file an additional affidavit incorporating therein the entire pleadings of the high court," the bench said, adding, the affidavit be filed by September 14, reported PTI.
The apex court observed there was a "kind of formula" on which it had earlier decided the pleas of two accused and the question to be considered in this matter is whether this fits into that formula or not.
Activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were granted bail by Justice Bose on July 28 in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, noting that they have been in custody for five years.
On May 4, the top court sought responses from the Maharashtra government and the NIA on Jagtap's plea against the high court order.
The high court had said Jagtap was an active member of group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), which during its stage play at the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave on December 31, 2017 in Pune city gave not only "aggressive, but highly provocative slogans". The court said that there were “reasonable grounds” for believing that allegations/accusations of the NIA against Jagtap, reported PTI.
According to the NIA, KKM is a front organisation of the banned terror outfit Communist Party of India (Maoist). The high court had dismissed the appeal filed by the activist-cum-singer challenging a February 2022 order of a special court refusing her bail.
The 2017 Elgar Parishad conclave was held at Shaniwarwada, an 18th century palace-fort located in the heart of Pune city.
Jagtap, accused of singing and raising provocative slogans at the conclave along with other KKM members, was arrested in September 2020 and has been lodged at the Byculla women's prison in Mumbai since then.
According to investigators, provocative speeches that were allegedly made at the conclave triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima on the outskirts of Pune on January 1, 2018.