State pressurising court: Bharadwaj

Mumbai: Bhima-Koregaon violence accused Sudha Bharadwaj’s legal counsel on Friday argued that the courts have been rejecting the former’s bail plea due to the pressure applied by the state machinery.

“The police is working on the belief that if it chants the mantra of national security loud enough before the court, the court will shut its mind and rubber-stamp the evidence. That is why Ms Bharadwaj’s bail has been rejected by the lower court,” Ms Bharadwaj’s counsel Yug Chowdhari said.

A single bench of Justice Sarang Kotwal was hearing the bail plea filed by Vernon Gonsalves and Ms Bharadwaj when Ms Bharadwaj, through her counsel argued before the court that there were discrepancies in the prosecution’s evidence.

Advocate Chowdhari said, “Ms Bharadwaj was never present in Bhima-Koregaon and there was not a single evidence like a panchnama or witness’ statement against her. There was only one statement which was that of the investigation officer.”

He said that the prosecution case was based on letters and emails found on Surendra Gadling and Rona Wilson’s laptops, which failed to link Bharadwaj to the case. “The letters and minutes of the meeting found on Mr Gadling’s laptop are typed and no signature or dates are mentioned on those letters. How can we consider them authentic?” he argued.

Advocate Chowdhari also brought to the court’s notice, “The police has relied on the minutes of the meeting of female naxalites held at Nagpur on January 2, 2018, in which Soma Sen, a retired professor of English literature from Nagpur university and Ms Bharadwaj were present.”

“As per the police’s claim, the discussion held at the Nagpur meeting was about training and bomb making but the call data records of Ms Sen show that she was in Mumbai and Ms Bharadwaj was in Delhi and Haryana, which proves that there are discrepancies in the evidence,” he said.

The court has kept the matter for hearing on Wednesday.