3 years after Bhima Koregaon: How criminal law was violated
Published on: 9 June 2021, 05:17 am
Recalling his bruising experiences with an unjust criminal justice system as part of the legal team of the activists arrested in the questionable Bhima Koregaon violence case three years ago, NIHALSING B. RATHOD, in this second of a three-part series, recollects how basic tenets of criminal law were violated by the Pune Police in arresting Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Arun Fereira, and Vernon Gonsalves at various points, and extending their detention, as well as that of Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale and Mahesh Raut. All this while, Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde exhausted all legal options to evade arrest, as the judiciary looked on, condoning the deprivation of the activists' liberty and denying their bail applications, sometimes making gestures that filled the activists' legal team with hope but ultimately continuing the farce that is the Bhima-Koregaon travesty.
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THE Supreme Court's judgment in Romila Thapar, though having a difference of opinion among the three judges on the division bench, gave three weeks' time to the five activists placed under house arrest to exhaust their legal remedies.
Most importantly, in his dissenting opinion, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had analysed the letters placed as evidence against the accused, to a certain extent, casting serious doubt over their authenticity and emphasising the necessity of holding an independent probe.
Given these sharp judicial findings, it was expected of the investigating agencies that they would overcome them, yet there is no iota of material on record which can endorse the facts stated in the letter.