Bhima-Koregaon case: Supreme Court gives police more time to file charge sheet

New Delhi: The Supreme Court made an exception for Pune Police on Wednesday and granted it more time than the mandated 90 days to file a charge sheet under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1987, against activists facing charges of having links with Maoists.

Surendra Pundlik Gadling, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhawale were detained and charged under the law after the Bhima Koregaon violence on December 31, 2017.

Under the law they would be entitled to bail by default should the police fail to file a charge sheet in court relating to the charges against them within the 90-day window.


But a bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi took away this privilege granted to persons detained under the law. Justices L. Nageswar Rao and Sanjay Kishan Kaul were the other two judges on the bench.

The high court had earlier refused to grant the police extra time to file a charge sheet, prompting the state government to appeal to the top court. The high court had said that the public prosecutor had not applied his mind to the case.

State police had claimed that there was sufficient evidence against the accused to show their complicity in Maoist violence.