The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to former Delhi University Professor Hany Babu, one of those accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, Live Law reported.
Babu spent more than five years in jail, after being arrested in July 2020 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The bail was granted by a division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale. The detailed order is awaited.
The case pertains to the violence that broke out near Pune on January 1, 2018, a day after a conclave called the Elgar Parishad was organised to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.
One person was killed in the violence and several others were injured.
The National Investigation Agency has alleged that the Elgar Parishad was part of a larger Maoist conspiracy to stoke caste violence, destabilise the central government and assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The agency has accused Babu of being a member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and being involved in the alleged conspiracy to assassinate Modi.
In June 2022, an article in the Wired magazine said that the Pune Police had allegedly hacked electronic devices owned by Babu and two other persons accused in the matter – Wilson and Varavara Rao – and planted fake evidence on them.
In May 2024, Babu withdrew his bail petition before the Supreme Court, saying that he would approach the High Court with a fresh plea on account of changed circumstances. He noted that eight persons accused in the case had been granted bail by the Supreme Court and the High Court.
During the hearing before the High Court, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh contended that Babu had not spent a substantial period in prison like co-accused persons Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale.
Singh argued that the former Delhi University professor could not be granted bail merely because he had been incarcerated for a long time, Live Law reported.
Seven years on, the trial in the case is yet to begin. One person accused in the case, Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, died in prison in 2021.
So far the Bombay High Court has granted bail to Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale and Sudha Bharadwaj, while the Supreme Court has granted bail to Rao on medical grounds and to Shoma Sen, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira on merits. In November, the Supreme Court also granted interim bail to Jyoti Jagtap.
Also read:
‘Tell the judge he has done no crime’: The struggles of Hany Babu’s family
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