In the Bhima Koregaon case, the Supreme Court of India on Friday granted bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.…
In the Bhima Koregaon case, the Supreme Court of India on Friday granted bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira. The activists were detained in August 2018 under the strict Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) on grounds of inciting violence.
The Supreme Court stated that while the allegations against the two were serious, that alone could not be the only justification for denying bail, noting that they had been detained for more than five years.
Their request for bail had previously been denied by the Bombay High Court in December 2021. Gonsalves and Vernon then went to the Supreme Court of India.
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The case concerns the Elgar Parishad conference that took place in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the Pune police claim was sponsored by Maoists. The National Investigation Agency has charged 14 people, including Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.
A trade unionist, activist, and academic, he is a suspect in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon tragedy.
Vernon Gonsalves was born in 1957. His wife Susan Abraham, a lawyer, is also an advocate for workers’ rights. He was detained under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Catholic from Mangalore, Vernon Gonsalves was born in Byculla, South Mumbai. He studies at numerous colleges in Mumbai including Ruparel College, HR College of Commerce and Economics, and Akbar Peerbhoy College of Commerce and Economics. He received a gold medal for his master’s work in business studies.
Gonsalves was detained by the Pune Police on August 28, 2018, along with activists Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, and Gautam Navlakha, as well as a lawyer named Sudha Bharadwaj. They were placed under house arrest. During his bail proceedings, he was defended by renowned senior counsel Mihir Desai. When the Court questioned Gonsalves about why he had a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace rather than Biswajit Roy’s, there was a commotion. This sparked a commotion on Twitter.
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