New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday stated the bail plea of activist Jyoti Jagtap, who’s an accused within the Elgar Parishad-Maoist hyperlinks case, could be heard along with a separate pending petition filed by the NIA difficult the bail granted to one of many co-accused. The apex courtroom had in September final yr prolonged the keep granted by the Bombay High Court on the implementation of its verdict granting bail to activist Mahesh Raut, an accused within the Elgar Parishad-Maoist hyperlinks case.

The National Investigation Ageny (NIA) has challenged within the high courtroom the September 21, 2023 order of the excessive courtroom granting bail to Raut, who was arrested in June 2018 in reference to the case. Jagtap’s bail plea got here up for listening to on Thursday earlier than a bench of justices M M Sundresh and Aravind Kumar.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Okay M Nataraj, showing for the NIA, instructed the bench concerning the pendency of the probe company’s plea towards the bail granted to Raut. “The entire issue will have to be gone into in detail. Kindly consider one aspect. In respect of another accused, one petition is already pending. He was enlarged on bail and that has been stayed by this court,” the regulation officer stated.

“We will take both the matters together,” the bench noticed. It directed the highest courtroom registry to take acceptable order to publish each the issues collectively.

“Either that (petition) will come with this or this will go with that,” the bench stated. The counsel showing for Jagtap, who was arrested in September 2020, stated she has been in custody for nearly 4 years now.

He stated a complete of 16 individuals have been arrested in reference to the case, out of which seven have been out on bail whereas considered one of them had handed away. He referred to the allegations levelled towards Jagtap, and stated there are 295 witnesses within the case and expenses are but to be framed. The counsel argued that nothing has been recovered from Jagtap through the investigation.

Jagtap has moved the apex courtroom difficult the October 17, 2022 order of the excessive courtroom that refused to grant her bail, saying the NIA case towards her was “prima facie true” and that she was a part of a “larger conspiracy” hatched by the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit.

The excessive courtroom had stated Jagtap was an lively member of the Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) group, which throughout its stage play on the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017 gave not solely “aggressive, but highly provocative slogans”.

The 2017 Elgar Parishad conclave was held at Shaniwarwada, an 18th-century palace-fort positioned within the coronary heart of Pune metropolis. Jagtap, accused of singing and elevating provocative slogans on the conclave together with different KKM members, was arrested in September 2020 and has been lodged in jail underneath judicial custody.

According to the investigators, provocative speeches that have been allegedly made on the conclave triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima on the outskirts of Pune on January 1, 2018. Jagtap is lodged in jail for alleged offences, together with underneath the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.