The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to activist Jyoti Jagtap, one of the 16 persons accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, Bar and Bench reported.

Jagtap’s counsel told a bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma that she had been in custody for over five years, after which she was granted interim bail.

Jagtap, who is a member of cultural organisation Kabir Kala Manch, has been in prison since September 8, 2020.

The National Investigation Agency has alleged that the organisation, which was formed after the 2002 Gujarat riots, was a frontal organisation of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). However, Jagtap’s lawyer has previously argued before the Bombay High Court that not everyone who was a member of the frontal organisation was a part of the main organisation.

In 2022, the Bombay High Court had rejected a bail application filed by Jagtap observing that the case filed against her by the National Investigation Agency was prima facie true.

The Bhima Koregaon case

The case is related to the violence that broke out in Bhima Koregaon village near Pune on January 1, 2018, a day after the Elgar Parishad conclave was organised to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.

One person died in the violence and several others were injured.

Jagtap is accused of singing and shouting provocative slogans at the event along with other members of the Kabir Kala Manch, PTI reported.

The NIA has also said that Jagtap, along with other accused persons, undertook efforts to bring together a crowd of Dalits to create hatred against the government.

Seven years on, the trial in the case is yet to begin. One person accused in the case, Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, died in prison in 2021.

When the Supreme Court in 2023 granted bail to two people accused in the case, it noted that the primary evidence cited by the National Investigation Agency – a batch of letters – was of “weak probative value or quality”. In addition, a digital forensics firm, Arsenal Consulting, concluded that false evidence had been planted on the laptops and devices of the accused.

Also read: How Kabir Kala Manch, the anti-caste cultural troupe, challenges the hierarchical social order

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