The Bombay High Court on October 17, 2022, rejected the regular bail application filed by Jyoti Jagtap in the Bhima-Koregaon riots case. A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and M N Jadhav dismissed the appeal filed by Jagtap, which challenged the February 2022 order of a special court refusing to grant her bail.
Jagtap, who is a member of the banned outfit Kabir Kala Manch was arrested on September 8, 2020, by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in Pune in the case. Jagtap is accused of delivering an inciteful speech during the Elgar Parishad near Pune, which incited the Bhima-Koregaon violence in 2018. One person was killed and several others were injured in the violent clashes.
According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Kabir Kala Manch is a frontal group for the banned Far-Left terror outfit Communist Party of India (Maoist). In August 2021, the NIA in its statement submitted to a special court in Mumbai, said that Jagtap and others accused in the case were active members of the CPI (Maoist). The NIA statement further said that the Jagtap and other accused wanted “to establish a janta sarkar via revolution supported by a commitment to protracted armed struggle to undermine and to seize power from the state.”
Jagtap has been charged under various sections of the India Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
