Sudha Bharadwaj allowed to visit home following father's death

The Bombay High Court on Thursday allowed activist Sudha Bharadwaj, arrested for alleged Maoist links, to visit her family in Bengaluru to attend post-funeral rituals following her father's death.

Bharadwaj has been in jail for almost a year now after Pune Police arrested her in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.

Her father died two days ago.

Bharadwaj's lawyer Yug Chaudhary requested the high court on Thursday that she be allowed to visit home to attend '13th day' rituals.

Justice Sarang Kotwal, who is hearing her bail plea, granted the request, and directed the Maharashtra government to provide enough police personnel in plain clothes to accompany Bharadwaj.

She will leave for Bengaluru on August 17 and start the return journey on August 20.

The cost of her travel and police escort will be borne by the state, the court said.

Bharadwaj has moved the high court seeking bail. She has denied all charges of having connections with Maoist organisations and being part of their conspiracies.

In February, another bench of the high court had reserved its verdict on her bail plea after multiple hearings, but did not pronounce the verdict on the scheduled date and instead recused itself from the case.

The bail pleas of Bharadwaj and some of her co-accused are being heard afresh by Justice Kotwal now.

According to Pune Police, inflammatory speeches at Elgar Parishad, a conclave allegedly backed by Maoists, led to violence at Bhima Koregaon war memorial in the district on January 1, 2018.

During the probe of the violence, the police claimed to have found links of Bharadwaj and some other Left-leaning activists with the Maoists.