India, Aug. 30 -- A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Saturday rejected the NIA's pleas to cancel the bail of four Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case accused -- Telugu poet-activist P Varavara Rao, lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj, and activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, for participating in an event at the Mumbai Press Club earlier this year. The court said there was no evidence to show that the gathering they attended was meant to propagate CPI (Maoist) ideology or advance the "Urban Naxal" movement.

Special Judge Chakor S Baviskar, in four separate orders pronounced on Saturday, said CCTV footage of the January 19 gathering showed the accused and co-accused present but had no audio, making it impossible to establis...