On Friday, a division bench headed by Justice SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar in the Bombay High Court granted temporary bail to Advocate Surendra Gadling, a UAPA undertrial in the Bhima Koregaon case, from August 13 to 21 to attend his mother’s death anniversary, Live Law reported.
Earlier this year, Mr. Gadling had moved to the High Court through lawyers R Sathyanarayan and senior counsel Indira Jaising against an order by a lower court rejecting his plea for an emergency bail to attend his mother’s funeral owing to COVID19 last year.
Mr. Gadling’s lawyers informed the High Court last week that as most of his family members were either hospitalized or under home isolation then, the last rites and condolence meeting for his mother were yet to be performed. The last rites of his mother will be performed on her first death anniversary on August 15 this year.
The court asked Mr. Gadling to submit his passport before the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court and also share his “whole itinerary” for the period of bail. He can not leave Nagpur city except for immersing his mother’s ashes in the Bina river on August 19, the judges said.
Also read: Surendra Gadling and Sudhir Dhawale Challenge Transfer of Elgar Parishad Probe to NIA
Mr. Gadling currently at Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai, has been in jail for over three years since June 6, 2018, as an undertrial after being charged with the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the Elgar Parishad case. The trial against him has not been started yet. Along with Mr. Gadling more than dozen activists, all of whom have been critical of the ruling BJP regime, have been arrested at different time periods in the Elgar Parishad case.
Earlier, Father Stan Swamy, an 84 years old rights activist the 16th accused to be arrested in the case, passed away on July 5, awaiting bail.
Recently, American forensic agency, Boston-based Arsenal Consulting had released a report which claimed that incriminating evidence which the police had used to arrest Surendra Gadling was planted on his computer.
The report provides evidence that Mr. Gadling and a number of other accused in the case, have had their computers planted with documents. These documents have formed the core of the NIA’s accusations against them.
The report shows how Surendra Gadling’s computer had been compromised two years before he was arrested. His computer was hacked via emails that he received, on which others like Fr. Stan Swamy were cc-ed.
