In a significant development, the Bombay High Court has granted bail to activist Mahesh Raut, who had been under arrest in connection with the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case.
A division bench comprising of Justices A S Gadkari and Sharmila Deshmukh has ruled in favor of Mahesh Raut’s plea for bail on merits. This decision comes after a considerable period of judicial scrutiny.
Notably, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had requested the court to delay the implementation of its order for a period of two weeks, with the intention of filing an appeal in the Supreme Court. In response, the bench has opted to stay the operation of its order for a duration of one week.
Mahesh Raut had been taken into custody in June 2018 and has remained in judicial custody ever since. His pursuit of bail and his challenge against the NIA court’s denial of bail were brought before the High Court in 2022.
In his plea, Raut contended that his continued custody was unjustified and contravened the principles enshrined in Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. The NIA countered this argument, asserting that granting bail to an individual accused under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) on constitutional grounds was not a justifiable course of action.
This development is part of the ongoing legal proceedings concerning the Elgar Parishad conclave, which took place in Pune on December 31, 2017. According to the Pune police, the event was purportedly funded by Maoists, and the incendiary speeches delivered there were alleged to have incited violence at the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune the following day. The case, originally investigated by the Pune police, later came under the jurisdiction of the NIA. To date, 16 activists have been arrested in connection with this case, with five of them currently out on bail. Scholar-activist Anand Teltumbde, lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, and Arun Ferreira have already been granted regular bail, while poet Varavara Rao was released on bail on health grounds. Additionally, another accused, activist Gautam Navlakha, remains under house arrest in accordance with the directives of the Supreme Court.