Arun Ferreira who is lawyer by profession and an activist moved to the Bombay High Court for default bail in the Bhima Koregaon riots case of 2018.
The petition was listed before the Bench led by Justice Revati Mohite Dere who without assigning any reason, recused herself from hearing the matter today . The appeal will now be heard by another Bench.
Ferreira in his petition which he filed through advocate R Satyanarayanan, said that his case is same as that of co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj who has already been granted default bail by a co-ordinate bench of the high court in December 2021.
Seven of accused along with Ferreira and were refused bail by the High Court, however Sudha Bharadwaj was granted bail.
As per the High Court record, the application for Bharadwaj’s default bail was pending on the date the application for extension of time to file the chargesheet was made by the Pune Police.
In his plea Ferreira pointed out that the only difference between their plea is of 3 days. He said that Bharadwaj’s bail plea was filed on the 91st day, while his was field on the 94th day.
In his application Ferreira submitted that while the bail was granted to Bharadwaj, the High Court had observed that the extension of time for investigation and detention under provisions of Section 43D(2) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure had not been done by a court of competent jurisdiction.
Ferreira believed that in this case the benefits of the finding ought to extend to him as well, it was contended.
The arrest of Ferreira was doe on August 2018 for his alleged involvement in the riots that took place in Bhima Koregaon post the Elgar Parishad event held on January 2018.
in 2021,Ferreira along with two of the other accused asked for correction of an alleged error in the December 2021 judgment and consequently, prayed that they should be granted bail.
The plea was rejected for lack of factual errors, the Bench clearly said that such application for bail was never listed in the review application and had never been placed before the Court.
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