Bhima Koregaon case: SC to hear bail plea of accused Jyoti Jagtap on September 21

The counsel appearing for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) sought two-week time to file an affidavit on the bail plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday listed a hearing for September 21, in a plea filed by Jyoti Jagtap, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case under the anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), challenging an order of the Bombay High Court which declined her bail last year.

A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar said it would hear the case on September 21.

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The counsel appearing for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) sought two-week time to file an affidavit on the bail plea.

Advocate Aparna Bhat, representing the Jagtap, told the bench that the apex court should fix a date for hearing the matter as she is in custody for about three years.

“List on September 21. Let the respondent file an additional affidavit incorporating therein the entire pleadings of the High Court,” the bench said while asking the NIA to file the affidavit by September 14.

On May 4, the apex court sought responses from the Maharashtra government and the NIA on Jagtap’s plea against the High Court order.

Jagtap, 32, a member of Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) a cultural group alleged to be a front organisation of the banned CPI (Maoist), was arrested by the NIA in September 2020.

According to the NIA, Jagtap and others organised the Elgar Parishad event on December 31, 2017, which led to violence the following day.

She has approached the top court challenging the October 17, 2022 order of the High Court which had refused to grant her bail.

Jagtap, singer-cum-activist, had approached the High Court in appeal after a special NIA Court had rejected her bail application on February 14, 2023, leading to a move to the apex court.

High Court had said the NIA’s case against Jagtap was “prima facie true” and that she was part of a “larger conspiracy” hatched by the banned outfit CPI (Maoist).

The High Court had said Jagtap was an active member of 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”.

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.