Pune Judge "Pretended" To Be Special Judge, Denied Bail Without Power: Sudha Bharadwaj To High Court

Senior counsel Yug Chaudhry, who appeared for Activist Sudha Bharadwaj, told the high court that KD Vadane, an additional sessions judge in Pune, had remanded her and eight other activists to the Pune Police's custody in 2018.

Activist Sudha Bharadwaj, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case, told the Bombay High Court through her lawyer on Tuesday that the judge who remanded her to custody following her arrest in 2018 had "pretended" to be a designated special judge and orders issued by him were responsible for a longer stay in jail for herself and other co-accused. Senior counsel Yug Chaudhry, who appeared for Bharadwaj, told the high court that KD Vadane, an additional sessions judge in Pune, had remanded her and eight other activists to the Pune Police's custody in 2018. Vadane subsequently granted an extension of time to the Pune Police to file a chargesheet in the case, taken cognisance of the chargesheet, and in October 2018 denied bail to Bahardwaj and three other co-accused. While passing orders on all of the above-mentioned proceedings, Vadane had claimed to be a "special UAPA judge", and had signed the orders as the special UAPA judge, Mr Chaudhry told the HC. Mr Chaudhry said he had replies given by the Maharashtra government and the high court to RTI queries filed by Bharadwaj that said Vadane had never been designated as a special judge under any legal provision.