Move trial court or HC for bail in Elgar case, DU ex-prof told
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked former Delhi University Professor Hany Babu to move either the trial court or the Bombay High Court for bail in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad conspiracy case under the UAPA over alleged Maoist links.
A Bench led by Justice Pankaj Mithal dismissed his plea for a clarification on the point that his withdrawing the earlier appeal did not prevent the high court from hearing his bail application.
Babu withdrew his bail plea before the top court on May 3 last year in the case as he decided to move the high court. His lawyer had said the high court granted bail to five co-accused in the case. When Babu moved the high court, it said the top court’s order allowing withdrawal of his plea did not give him liberty to move the high court and asked him to seek a clarification from the top court.
As Babu’s advocate said he had undergone five years as an undertrial and withdrawn the special leave petition from the top court to move the high court, the NIA counsel opposed the plea, saying it was not maintainable and a fresh bail application should be filed before the NIA court. He said the high court was a court of appeal and the case involved Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act charges.
“Your primary ground is some other accused has been granted bail… that can also be considered by the trial court,” the Bench said, adding that it couldn’t direct the high court to consider his bail plea.
The top court granted liberty to Babu to seek revival of his previous appeal withdrawn last year.
The high court rejected his bail plea on September 19, 2022.
The NIA has accused Babu of being a co-conspirator in propagating Maoist activities and ideology on the instructions of leaders of the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation. Babu was arrested in July 2020 in the case and is currently lodged at the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai. The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held in Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, the police claimed, triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial located on the city’s outskirts. One person was killed and several injured in the violence.
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