By Jose Kavi

New Delhi, July 28, 2023: Activists and others have cheered India’s Supreme Court granting bail to a trade unionist and a lawyer jailed in the Bhima Koregaon case.

“The granting of bail to Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves by the Supreme Court is indeed a significant step. Very delayed, but must be welcomed all the same,” says Jesuit social scientist Father Cedric Prakash, who has followed the case closely.

The apex court on July 28 granted bail to the two, who were among 16, including late Jesuit tribal activist Father Stan Swamy, arrested in connection with the caste violence that broke out on January 1, 2018, in Bhima Koregaon, village near Pune, a western Indian city.

All of them were jailed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) but without any reliable evidence.

“One ray of light in the darkness,” says Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, a Mumbai-based activist, reacting to the news about the bail to Ferreira and Gonsalves.

Presentation Sister Dorothy Fernandes welcomed the news as “a day off great Joy and celebration” and said “other innocent people still languishing” in the same case “can still hope for justice.”

Olav Albuquerque, a senior journalist and advocate of the Bombay High Court, says the bail has been welcomed by advocates and clerics alike “because bail is the rule and jail is the exception. This dictum holds true however heinous the crime may be unless those granted bail will intimidate the witnesses or destroy incriminating evidence.”

Father Prakash urges the Supreme Court to look into the cases of the others, still languishing in jail for their alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case, “and must also grant them immediate bail.”

The Jesuit priest says the National Investigation Agency that arrested the 16 does not have any evidence to arrest any of them under UAPA. “If they had, they should have produced the same long ago,” he asserts.

He regrets that false cases are foisted on several other human rights defenders, political dissenters and those who take a stand for the poor and are illegally incarcerated.

The Supreme Court “must declare the UAPA unconstitutional, give bail to all political prisoners and suitably compensate all those who have been wrongfully imprisoned with suitable punishment to the erring officers,” Father Prakash demanded.

Albuquerque, who holds a doctorate in law, points out that Ferreira and Gonsalves have already served five years in jail while another accused Father Stan Swamy died in hospital while in judicial custody.

“It was deplorable that it took a long time for the judiciary to decide a simple application (of Father Swamy) for a sipper to sip liquids because the hands of this aged priest were trembling and he could not ingest any liquid,” he told Matters India.

Among other charges, Father Swamy was accused of being a Maoist “which is incompatible with being a Jesuit priest. Maoists are atheists while Jesuit priests believe in God.” Father Swamy died on July 5, 2021, in Holy Family Hospital as an undertrial prisoner.

Albuquerque, who is also a veteran journalist, also said Gonsalves and Ferreira had argued that the Bombay High court had denied them bail even while granting bail to their co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj.

Sister Fernandes, national convener of the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace, an advocacy group, says she awaits the day when “these heroes of our times will be declared free because they have paid heavy prices for daring to speak out and got falsely implicated.”

While joining the families of the two in their happy reunion, she prays for those still not granted bail such as Sanjiv Bhatt, a police officer of Gujarat, languishing in jail for years for speaking the truth. “Such unsung heroes need to be honored…May justice be theirs soon one day,” she told Matters India.

The legal news portal, Live Law, reports that Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia of the Supreme Court had on March 3 reserved the judgement on the bail for Gonsalves and Ferreira.

While granting bail, the apex court noted that the two have been in custody for more than five years. “The allegations are serious, no doubt, but for that reason alone, bail cannot be denied to them,” Justice Bose said while pronouncing the order.

As conditions for the bail, the court ordered that Gonsalves and Ferreira will not be allowed to leave Maharashtra until the trial in the case is over. The two activists will also have to surrender their passports and inform the National Investigation Agency about their addresses and phone numbers.

The court wants the two to maintain only one mobile connection and keep it charged round the clock so that the NIA officer can track them. They should also report to the investigating officer once a week.”

The 16 arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case have also been accused of conspiring to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi and of having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Gonsalves and Ferreira were arrested on August 28, 2018.

Ferreira had defended political prisoners as a criminal lawyer. He was arrested in 2007 for alleged links to the Indian Naxalite movement and spent five years in prison before he was acquitted in 2012. Then came the arrest in the Bhima Koregaon violence.

Ferreira’s interests in social activism were reportedly influenced by his uncle, Father Raymond D’Silva, a liberation theologian. Father D’Silva taught many Catholic youths about the strong social imbalances between the wealthy, and the impoverished. As a member of the All-India Catholic University Federation, Ferreira, a student of Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College, explored why millions live in poverty when India has abundant resources.

After college, Ferreira worked among the slum-dwellers and squatters of Mumbai and was involved in helping slum rehabilitation at Dindoshi where he worked for the relocation of slums from Colaba to Goregaon.

Gonsalves, with Mangalorean roots, had taught in several colleges in Mumbai. Before his arrest in the Bhima-Koregaon case, he was accused of being a member of the Central Committee members of Communist Party of India (Maoist) and convicted under the Arms Act, Explosives Act, besides UAPA.

He was charged in around 20 cases, acquitted in 17 because of lack of evidence, discharged in one, standing trial in one and convicted in one by a Nagpur court. He was in jail after his arrest in August 2007 and released in June 2013.