Elgar Parishad Case: Prof Hany Babu, 3 others' bail pleas face NIA's objection
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Mumbai: Delhi University professor Hany Babu and three others, currently doing time at Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai over a Maoist link case, had a jolt on Monday after a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court rejected their bail plea.
Special Judge DE Kothalikar gave thumbs down to the bail application filed by professor Hany Babu and his co-accused including Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap. The trio belongs to the Kabir Kala Manch.
Hany Babu was nabbed from his Delhi home on July 28, 2020; the co-accused in the case have been in custody since their arrest in September 2020.
The accused are facing charges of inflammatory speeches alleged to have been delivered at Elgar Parishad conclave held in Shaniwarwada Pune on December 31, 2017.
Police contended that speeches triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon- Bhima war memorial, sitting in the city's suburbs.
The investigation in the case, where over a dozen activists and academicians face charges, was later transferred to NIA. The Pune police claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists.
The Mumbai High Court on February 9 sought NIA and Maharashtra government to respond in two weeks to a review filed petition by three accused in the case.
The trio Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves challenged the court's previous order that denied them default bail.
The three undertrial accused have challenged a December 1, 2021 order passed by the bench that granted default bail to lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, a co-accused in the case, but denied default bail to several other accused, PTI reports.
The High Court at the time said that except Bharadwaj, other accused had not sought default bail before the lower courts within stipulated time.
In their pleas, the accused said that the High Court's order was based on a "factual error". Because, the court failed to note that the lower court had rejected the default bail pleas filed by Bharadwaj, the three petitioners and two other co-accused through a common order, according to the report.
The petitioners claimed that if the High Court, in granting bail to Bharadwaj, set aside the lower court's order of November 6, 2019, the others too were entitled to relief.
The High Court will hear the matter again on February 24.