Hany Babu, the former Delhi University professor, who was in jail in connection to the Elgar Parishad case, was on Thursday granted bail by the Bombay High Court, according to PTI.
Babu was behind bars for more than five years and had sought bail on the grounds of prolonged incarceration without trial.
A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Ranjit Sinha Bhosale granted bail to Babu, though the detailed order is not yet available.
The High Court declined the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) request to stay the bail so it could file an appeal in the Supreme Court. Babu’s counsel, Yug Mohit Chaudhary, had also contended that charges had not yet been framed and that their discharge application was still pending before the trial court.
The NIA has accused Hany Babu of acting as a co-conspirator in promoting Maoist activities and ideology under the direction of leaders of the banned CPI (Maoist) group.
Babu was arrested in July 2020 in connection with the case and had been lodged at Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai.
What’s the case about?
The case concerns alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad event held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claim incited violence the following day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the city.
The violence resulted in one death and multiple injuries.
The case, in which more than a dozen activists and academics were named as accused, was taken over by NIA after Pune Police initially investigated it.
Meanwhile, last month, a special NIA court granted interim bail to Sagar Gorkhe , accused in the Elgar-Parishad Maoist link case, so he can appear for his law degree examinations, the report noted. Gorkhe, associated with the Kabir Kala Manch, an alleged front organization of the banned CPI (Maoist), was arrested in September 2020 and is currently held at Taloja Jail in nearby Navi Mumbai.
Special Judge Chakor Bhaviskar on Wednesday approved his temporary bail from November 20 to December 16 to allow him to attend his law exams.
The NIA, represented by special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty, opposed Gorkhe’s plea, citing the seriousness of the offences, the unusually long duration of interim bail, and the risk of him absconding.
However, the court noted that Gorkhe had previously been allowed to appear for the CET-Law Entrance Exam on March 6, 2024, and granted him temporary bail to attend another law examination from December 14, 2024, to January 4, 2025.
Key Takeaways
- Babu was behind bars for more than five years and had sought bail on the grounds of prolonged incarceration without trial.
- A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Ranjit Sinha Bhosale granted bail to Babu, though the detailed order is not yet available.