A Special Court on Saturday (August 29) refused to cancel the bail granted to four rights activists booked in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case. The Special Court has, however, 'cautioned' the accused persons against breaching the conditions imposed on them while granting them bail.

Special Judge Chakor Baviskar dismissed the application filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking to cancel the bail granted to Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves.

The four accused were granted bail at various points of time by either the High Court or the Supreme Court.

One of the bail conditions was that the accused should not communicate with each other. However, in January this year, the four accused were part of a gathering that took place in the Mumbai Press Club. The NIA alleged that the aim of the gathering was to discuss the future course of the case, propagate the ideology of the proscribed organization CPI (Maoist) and to deliberate upon future course of action for spreading 'Urban Naxal' movement, which constitutes a direct threat to the integrity, sovereignty and security of the nation.

The judge watched the CCTV footage of the entire meeting which took place at the Mumbai Press Club and noted that the footage had no audio and thus it was difficult to infer as to what communication actually took place.

"Certainly, on January 19, 2026 at the terrace of the Mumbai Press Club, the accused and co-accused alongwith other invitees had gathered. Axiomatically and but naturally, they might have talked i.e. communicated with each other. It is but human that, they even might have talked about this case, facts of this case, fate of co accused and such related issues. By that alone, it cannot be concluded that, they committed breach of the condition imposed, that 'the accused shall not come in contact or communicate with co-accused or any other person involved in similar activities'," the judge said.

The judge further pointed out that even on the dates of this case in the Court, the accused met each other in the Court hall and certainly outside the Court hall. There also, the accused certainly be talking to each other, having contacts and communications with each other, the court said.

"That time also, the accused be discussing the facts and fate of the accused and co-accused as well. By that, they cannot be said committing any breach of that specific bail condition, as above. Hence, merely because a venue of the meeting/gathering of the accused changed, they cannot be said to have committed breach of the bail condition, as above and as alleged," the special judge said.

The intention behind imposing the specific bail condition, the judge explained, has to be taken into account i.e. the accused should not contact or communicate with co-accused to be involved (again) in similar activities and should not indulge in any similar or other offences as such, as alleged in this case.

"Sans any evidence to that effect, certainly, mere gathering of the accused falls short to conclude that, the bail condition is breached," the judge said.

Further the judge noted the fact that neither of the four accused disputed their presence at the Press Club's event and rather they explained that they had a discussion on issues like prison life, future course of action in the instant case etc.

"However, if the prosecution specifically alleges that, the intention of the gathering was to propagate the ideology of the proscribed organization CPI (Maoist) and to deliberate upon the future course of action for spreading the Urban Naxal movement, which constitutes a direct threat to the integrity, sovereignty and security of the Nation, the prosecution has to establish it at least with some sort of acceptable evidence. There is no such evidence which would compel this Court to accept that, the accused with these specific intentions had gathered over there with co-accused," the special court said.

Thus, the judge refused to accept the NIA's contentions and dismissed it's plea. The judge, however, cautioned the accused not to repeat their conduct in future.

"Nevertheless, as a matter of caution, since the accused was well aware of the bail condition, seeing other accused to have gathered at that function dated January 19, 2026, at the terrace of Mumbai Press Club, to avoid further complications, the accused could and should have recused from there without being indulged in further function and avoid possibility of inviting such application for cancellation of bail. The accused is expected to take proper care and caution even to avoid possibility of committing breach of any of the bail conditions," the judge said.

With these observations, the court dismissed the NIA plea to cancel the bail granted to the four accused.

Case Title: National Investigation Agency vs Arun Ferreira (Special Case 414 of 2020)

Click here to read the order