Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested in August 2018 under the provision of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UPAPA) in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
New Delhi: Lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj who was arrested in 2018 in connection with the Elgar Parishad- Maoist link case, is likely to be released today evening after spending 3 years in jail. Although, Bharadwaj has to furnish a cash bond of ₹50,000 and any one of the other sureties.
This comes a day after the Supreme Court rejected a petition by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), challenging the Bombay High Court order on her bail. “We see no reason to interfere with the high court order. Plea dismissed,” a bench of Justices UU Lalit, SR Bhat, and Bela M Trivedi said, clearing her release.
As part of her bail conditions, a special NIA court said today, the 60-year-old activist will have to submit her passport and stay in Mumbai.
She can’t interact with the media on the case, the special court said, adding that she could be released on a provisional cash bail of ₹ 50,000.
The court allowed Ms Bharadwaj to submit the cash surety, which would enable her to walk out of the jail either on Wednesday itself or Thursday.
Associated with the trade union movement in Chhattisgarh for more than 25 years, Sudha Bharadwaj is the general secretary of the Chhattisgarh unit of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), and a member of Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS).
Today, the anti-terror agency opposed her petition to go to Chhattisgarh.
Priest-activist Stan Swamy, 84, also arrested under the anti-terror law UAPA in the Elgar Parishad case last year, died in July in the midst of the fight for bail on health grounds.
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