Supreme Court Grants Interim Bail To Jyoti Jagtap In Bhima Koregaon Case

The Supreme Court today(November 19) granted interim bail to activist and member of cultural organisation Kala Kabir Manch, Jyoti Jagtap, in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad matter till the next date of hearing, which is in February 2026. 

A bench comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma passed the order. Senior Advocate Aparna Bhat, for Jagtap, told the bench that she has been under custody for over five years.

The bench agreed to grant interim bail till the next date of hearing.

It should be noted that the same bench also recently granted interim bail on medical grounds to co-accused Mahesh Raut for a period of 6 weeks, which was later extended till November 26. He has been in custody since his arrest in June 2018. Raut's matter was also mentioned by Senior Advocate CU Singh and the Court extended his interim bail till the next day of the hearing.

Jagtap along with 16 others, was accused by the National Investigating Agency(NIA) of being responsible for the caste violence at Bhima Koregaon in Pune.

The Pune police (and later NIA) contended that inflammatory speeches at Elgar Parishad – an event to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima – triggered the violent clashes that broke out between Maratha and Dalit groups near the village of Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra. This led to the arrest of 16 activists for allegedly conspiring and planning the violence. They were charged with various provisions of the UAPA based on letters and emails primarily retrieved from their electronic devices.

In February 2022, a special NIA Court rejected Jagtap's bail application, which was later upheld by the Bombay High Court in October. While rejecting her application, a division bench of the High Court observed that dialogues in Kabir Kala Manch's plays that ridiculed words/phrases like 'Ram Mandir', 'Gomutra', and 'Acche Din' – aimed at the democratically elected government – incited hatred and indicated a larger conspiracy.

Raut was granted bail on merits by the Bombay High Court on September 21, 2023, but the High Court had stayed the order for a week for the National Investigation Authority (NIA) to file an appeal.

Subsequently, the NIA filed an appeal before the Court, which was admitted by a bench comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Bela M Trivedi, which also extended one week's stay granted by the High Court till October 5, 2023. Since then, the stay has been extended from time to time.

Case Details: JYOTI JAGTAP v NATIONAL INVESTIGATING AGENCY AND ANR|Crl.A. No. 2598/2023 and THE NATIONAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY v MAHESH SITARAM RAUT AND ANR.|Crl.A. No. 3048/2023