HC grants bail to former MLA Nirmala Devi in Barkagaon case

Nirmala Devi was granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court on Thursday. Devi was convicted in the Barkagaon shootout case in March 2022. The court of justices Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Ambuj Nath allowed her to be released from custody. Devi was convicted by a special court in the lower judiciary for her involvement in the shootout at Barkagaon in 2015 which claimed the lives of several persons. Devi along with her spouse and former minister Yogendra Sao were convicted and sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The former MLA in her petition mentioned that she remained in custody for a substantial period of time and is a victim of a larger political conspiracy. The incident dates back to 2015 when both Devi and her husband Yogendra Sao were leading an agitation against the government for setting up a thermal power plant in the area. The agitation named Kafan Satyagrah’ had gained momentum and villagers had stopped work of the thermal project. The police in the meantime had arrested Devi who was leading the mob after her arrest. The villagers became violent and resorted to stone pelting on the police. The villagers also freed Devi from custody and helped her abscond the police. First, the police resorted to a lathi charge but ultimately had to