Bhima Koregaon: Youths accused of murder file bail pleas in High Court

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A 20-year-old man and two teenagers have approached the Bombay High Court seeking bail in a murder case linked to the violence that erupted on January 1 in Pune during the bicentenary celebrations of the battle of Bhima-Koregaon.

The trio are lodged in a jail since their arrest on January 10. According to police, when the violence erupted on January 1, a local resident Rahul Phatangade was allegedly accosted by a mob and beaten to death. Justice Bharati Dangre has posted the bail pleas for hearing tomorrow. According to their pleas, they were arrested only because the T-shirts they had worn depicted the picture of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Several persons had worn similar T-shirts at the event and the police picked up the trio based on a CCTV footage because of their alleged presence near the spot, where Phatangade's body was found, the bail pleas said.

The petitions added that there was no evidence whatsoever against the three and none of the witness statements mention their names or role. The pleas claim that there is "nothing on record to implicate" them and they have been arrested "only on the basis of suspicion and because of the community" they belong to.

The prime accused in the case, Milind Ekbote, was arrested on March 14 by the police and was last month granted bail by a Pune sessions court on a bond of Rs 25,000.

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