The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a petition by the Maharashtra government challenging the Bombay High Court’s order which set aside the extension granted to it to complete the inquiry into the Bhima Koregaon case. The court will hear the plea on October 29, Bar and Bench reported.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi considered the submissions made by the Maharashtra government that the appeal needed to be heard on an urgent basis.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday quashed a special court’s order granting the police an extension of 90 days to file a chargesheet against five activists – Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale – arrested on June 6 in connection with the violence in Bhima Koregaon. Justice Mridula Bhatkar struck down the special court’s order saying the public prosecutor had not filed a report regarding the progress in the investigation.
The High Court also stayed the implementation of its order till November 1 in case the Maharashtra government wanted to move the Supreme Court. The five activists can apply for bail after that.
The police have accused the activists of being members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and have claimed they were involved in the Elgar Parishad event in Pune on December 31 that was followed by caste-related violence in Bhima Koregaon the following day. The police had told the special court that the extra time was required because they have voluminous amounts of data and additional seized material that need to be investigated.
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