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Bhima Koregaon: Produce papers showing Pune judge was competent to pass orders, HC tells Maharashtra
The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to produce documents to show that the judge who granted an extension to the Pune Police to file the chargesheet in the Bhima Koregaon violence case and took cognisance of it was authorised to do so, PTI reported.
In a petition seeking default bail, activist Sudha Bharadwaj said that Sessions Judge KD Vadane was an additional judge and not a designated special judge. Vadane had remanded Bharadwaj and eight other activists in the case to the Pune Police’s custody in 2018.
“There were special judges, but the Pune Police preferred to go to Judge KD Vadane, who pretended to be a special judge,” Bharadwaj’s counsel informed the court, according to Live Law. “If the petition is allowed, then the orders of extension of time, the acceptance of the chargesheet, and the chargesheet in its entirety is null and void. And that would imply that they have been in illegal detention.”
Her counsel also cited Right to Information replies received from the High Court showing that Vadane had never been designated as a special judge.
During Thursday’s hearing, a bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar said the records produced by the High Court registry matched with the claim made by Bharadwaj.
Senior advocate…