Elgar case: Prolonged incarceration without trial; Bombay High Court grants bail to ex-DU prof Hany Babu

Mumbai: Former Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu, an accused in the high-profile Elgar Parishad case, was granted bail on Thursday by the Bombay High Court on grounds of prolonged incarceration of over five years without trial.

A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and R R Bhonsale, which completed hearing in the case in the first week of October this year, ordered on Thursday to release Babu and to furnish a personal bond of Rs one lakh with sureties of the same amount.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) urged the High Court to stay the order so that an appeal could be filed in the Supreme Court but it was rejected citing the length of time Babu had already spent behind bars and also that the trial was "not likely to complete soon."

The NIA had arrested the associate professor, whose full name is Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil and a resident of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, in July 2020.

Babu, 59, who worked with the English department of the university, has since been lodged in Taloja prison. Babu's counsel Yug Mohit Chaudhary argued for bail on the basis that charges have yet to be framed and a discharge application is still pending before the trial court.

Chaudhry had said that eight co-accused were released on bail by the Supreme Court or the High Court and therefore, Babu was also entitled to seek bail on the ground of prolonged incarceration without trial. The arrest of Babu figures in the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report which claims that he had not been provided proper medical treatment during his stay in the jail.

The NIA has accused Hany Babu of being a co-conspirator who was involved in propagating Maoist activities and ideology under the instructions of leaders of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

The case relates to inciting people and giving provocative speeches during an Elgar Parishad event organised by the Kabir Kala Manch at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence resulting in loss of life and property and statewide agitation in Maharashtra.

Initially, the Pune police registered a case in 2018 alleging the accused were involved in provocative speeches triggering violence at Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district the next day. The case was later taken over by the NIA.

The Elgar Parishad case has seen the arrest of 16 people, including prominent lawyers, activists, and academics accused of furthering the cause of the banned CPI (Maoist). Among them was 84-year-old priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy who died in custody in July 2021 while waiting for the trial to begin.

Ten other accused, including Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Shoma Sen, Gautam Navlakha, Sudhir Dhawale, and Rona Wilson, have been released on bail. The Supreme Court recently granted interim bail to Jyoti Jagtap.

Accused Mahesh Raut was also released on six-week medical bail by the apex court, which was subsequently extended. Lawyer Surendra Gadling as well as cultural artists and activists Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor are among those who are yet to secure regular bail in the case.