Activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale were on Wednesday granted bail by the Bombay High Court in the Bhima Koregaon case, Live Law reported.
“They are in jail since 2018, even the charges in the case are yet to be framed,” the court noted. “The prosecution has cited over 300 witnesses and thus there is no possibility of the trial to conclude in the near future.”
The bail conditions include a surety of Rs 1 lakh and restrictions on traveling outside Mumbai without court permission.
The activists have been warned against tampering with evidence and must surrender their passports. They are required to report to the National Investigation Agency’s headquarters in Mumbai every week.
Dhawale is the founder of the Dalit rights organisation Republican Panthers. He is also a well-known poet, political commentator and publisher of the left-leaning Marathi magazine Vidrohi.
Wilson is an activist from Kerala and one of the founding members of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners.
They were among 16 academicians, activists and lawyers who were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for their alleged role in instigating caste violence at Bhima Koregaon near Pune in January 2018. They were also accused of having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
Of the 16 persons who have been arrested in the case, Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died in custody at a Mumbai hospital on July 5, 2021, nearly nine months after he was arrested. The 84-year-old suffered from several ailments including Parkinson’s disease and contracted Covid-19 while being held at a prison in Taloja.
Seven others who have been accused in the case have secured bail over the last six years, namely Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao and Shoma Sen.
In 2021, Arsenal Consulting, a United States digital forensics firm found that key evidence against some of them was planted using malware on a laptop belonging to Wilson before his arrest.
The Pune Police used incriminating letters it found on Wilson’s laptop as primary evidence in its chargesheet.
Among these was a letter that the police claimed Wilson had written to a Maoist militant, discussing the need for guns and ammunition as part of a conspiracy and even urging the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Arsenal Consulting found the letters had been planted in a hidden folder on Wilson’s laptop.
Wilson’s laptop was compromised “for just over 22 months”, the computer forensics firm said, adding that the attacker’s primary goals were “surveillance and incriminating document delivery”.
A separate forensic analysis of Wilson’s phone by Amnesty International found that it had been infected with a spyware called Pegasus three months before his arrest.
Pegasus, developed by Israeli technology company NSO Group, has been at the centre of a debate on privacy violations and illegal surveillance. The firm has maintained it only sells its products to government law enforcement and intelligence clients to help them monitor security threats.
In July, however, a global investigation involving 17 news organisations, including The Guardian, The Washington Post and Indian news website The Wire, revealed that the software was allegedly used to spy on heads of states, activists and journalists in several countries.
Also read:
Bhima Koregaon accused asked to share phone location while on bail. Is this constitutional?
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