Elgar Parishad case: HC grants bail to lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted default bail to lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, an accused in the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case.

A bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar directed that Bharadwaj be produced before the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in the city, that will decide the conditions to be imposed on her bail and finalise her release from the Byculla women's prison.

She has been in custody as an undertrial since her arrest in 2018.

Bharadwaj's counsel and senior advocate Yug Chaudhry earlier told the HC that judge K D Vadane, who had taken cognisance of the Pune police's charge sheet and remanded Bharadwaj and the seven other accused persons to custody, was an additional sessions judge.

Chaudhry had earlier said that Vadane signed his court orders as a special judge, even though he was not a designated special judge.

The HC bench led by Justice Shinde had reserved its order on Bharadwaj's plea on August 4 this year.

The high court, however, rejected the default bail pleas of co-accused Sudhir Dhawale and seven others.