VERNON Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants before us assail two judgments of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay rejecting, in substance, their prayers for bail. Both the applications were filed on 27/10/2018 after the Special Judge, Pune under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 ('1967 Act') had dismissed their bail plea. The decisions of the High Court were delivered on the same date i.e. 15/10/2019.

(2.) We shall deal with both the appeals in this judgment as the detention of the appellants was on the basis of the same First Information Report ('FIR') and the chargesheet also contains the same Ss. in respect of which offences are alleged to have been committed by them. These are Ss. 121, 121A, 124A, 153A, 505(1)(b), 117, 120B read with Sec. 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ('1860 Code') and Ss. 13, 16, 17, 18, 18B, 20, 38, 39 and 40 of the 1967 Act. Wherever there are distinguishing features vis-a-vis the individual appellants in relation to the nature of evidence against them relied on by the Investigating Agency, we shall refer to them separately. In the subject-case, initially investigation was conducted by the regular law enforcement agency, being the State police. The Central Government, in exercise of their power under Sec. 6(5) read with Sec. 8 of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 directed the National Investigation Agency ('NIA') to take up investigation of the case by an order passed on 24/1/2020. The case was re-registered at the NIA Police Station, Mumbai as RC No.01/2020/NIA/MUM. Before us, the appeals have been contested by Mr. Nataraj, learned Additional Solicitor General, appearing for the NIA.

(3.) The proceedings against the appellants have their origin in an FIR, bearing CR No.4/2018 dtd. 8/1/2018 registered with Vishrambaug Police Station, Pune, Maharashtra. The informant is one Tushar Ramesh Damgude. The incident which prompted filing of the FIR was in relation to a programme at Shaniwar Wada, Pune held on 31/12/2017. The organisers for this event- Elgar Parishad, were activists of Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural organisation. There were various events in connection with the said programme, which according to the prosecution, were provocative in nature and had the effect of creating enmity between caste groups leading to violence and loss of life, as also state wide agitation. There were books kept at the venue, which, according to the maker of the FIR were also provocative. There were incidents of violence, arson, and stone pelting near Bhima-Koregaon and six members of Kabir Kala Manch and other associates were named as accused in the FIR. The appellants did not feature in the FIR. The scope of the investigation was subsequently expanded, as we find in the judgment giving rise to Criminal Appeal No.639 of 2023 on 17/4/2018 the Pune Police conducted searches at the residences of eight individuals, i.e. (1) Rona Wilson of Delhi, (2) Surendra Gadling of Nagpur, (3) Sudhir Dhawale of Mumbai, (4) Harshali Potdar of Mumbai, (5) Sagar Gorkhe (also referred to as Sagar Gorakhe by the prosecution) of Pune, (6) Deepak Dhengale of Pune, (7) Ramesh Gaichor of Pune and (8) Jyoti Jagtap of Pune. The residences of Shoma Sen and Mahesh Sitaram Raut, who have also been implicated in the same case, were searched on 6/6/2018. It has been argued by the NIA that during the searches, electronic devices and documents apart from other materials were recovered and the seized articles were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory ('FSL') for analysis. Cloned copies thereof, according to the prosecution, revealed incriminating materials. The appellants' names did not also figure in the initial chargesheet dtd. 15/11/2018, which implicated ten individuals as accused. Among them were Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut and Rona Wilson, who were in detention at that point of time. Rest five accused persons were absconding at that point of time. We are informed by Mr. Nataraj that one of the absconding accused, Milind Teltumbde, has since passed away.