Former Delhi College professor Honey Babu was granted bail by the Bombay Excessive Courtroom on Thursday, leaving solely three of the 16 individuals arrested by Pune Police and NIA within the Elgar Parishad case remaining in jail.
in For Honey BubAs within the case of a number of the different 11 individuals launched on bail, the court docket cited long-term imprisonment with out trial (as much as seven years or extra for some) as the idea for reduction. One of many accused, Stan Swamy, died in custody.
In January, the Excessive Courtroom had requested the particular court docket in Mumbai listening to the case to expedite the method and file fees inside 9 months. That deadline has handed, however no fees have but been filed. As soon as the costs are filed, the court docket will resolve on the prima facie proof underneath which sections the accused can file a case and the trial will start.
The prosecution’s case is that the accused have been members of the banned CPI (Maoist) and have been indulging in actions to additional its trigger. The accused have been booked underneath varied sections of the UAPA and IPC, Sections 153A (selling enmity), 121 (waging or trying or inciting conflict) and 124A (incitement). Part 121 of IPC is punishable by loss of life.
The case towards the 16 accused by the Pune police and the NIA is principally primarily based on “incriminating paperwork” present in digital gadgets within the possession of a few of them. The NIA has additionally claimed restoration of the alleged legal letter.
To counter this, the defendants cited an impartial forensic report displaying that the seized gadgets have been contaminated with malware.
the place is the case
NIA took over the case from Pune police in 2020. Aside from the 9 suspects arrested by police in 2018, seven others have been arrested in October 2020 and named within the indictment. In 2021, NIA filed draft chargesheet towards 16 individuals.
The particular court docket in Mumbai, the place the trial might be held, remains to be listening to arguments on the discharge petitions filed by the defendants, most of which have been filed in 2023, and the NIA’s opposition to them. Arguments on behalf of the defendants have been accomplished, and on the last listening to on December 4, the court docket adjourned the case to listen to arguments from the NIA. NIA prosecutors are anticipated to launch a counter-prosecution this month.
The court docket is prone to problem a joint order concerning the discharge petition after the conclusion of arguments.
Many of the accused have sought launch on the grounds that the digital information towards them cited by the NIA are questionable and shouldn’t be tried on the idea of such proof.
Whereas the excessive court docket set a deadline for indictment, the prosecution cited almost 363 witnesses in its indictment in January, stating that if issues proceed as they’re, it’s “unlikely that the trial might be accomplished within the close to future.”
The excessive court docket additionally beforehand stated the indictment comprises about 20,000 pages.
Defendant and bail order
February 2021: Telugu poet P. Varavara Rao, 82, who was arrested in 2018, was the primary defendant to be launched on bail and launched for six months on medical grounds. His bail was prolonged sometimes, however the Excessive Courtroom rejected his attraction for everlasting bail in April 2022.
In August 2022, the Supreme Courtroom granted him bail on medical grounds, as he had already been on trial for greater than two years.
July 2021: Stan Swamy, 84, a priest and Jharkhand-based tribal rights activist who was arrested in 2020 and had Parkinson’s illness, died in custody.
December 2021: Lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj, who was arrested in 2018, has been granted default bail by the Excessive Courtroom.
November 2022: Former IIT professor Anand Teltumde, who was arrested in 2020, grew to become the primary accused within the case to be granted bail on deserves. His bail order said that primarily based on the prima facie materials, “it can’t be concluded that the appellant dedicated any act of terrorism.”
As proof towards him, the NIA submitted a letter purportedly written to him by one ‘Prakash’. The excessive court docket stated that since no letter was recovered from Teltumbde, it can’t be presumed that he was an energetic member of the CPI (Maoist).
One other cost towards Teltumbde is that he was in secret contact with the Maoist chief’s brother Milind, who was killed in an encounter in November 2021.
The Excessive Courtroom identified that there was no signature on the doc claiming that ‘Anand T’ acquired Rs 90,000 from co-accused ‘Surendra (Gadling)’ by way of Milind (Teltumde). The court docket additionally stated that mere being Milind’s elder brother was not the only foundation for indicting Teltumbde. He additionally referred to as the statements made by one of many three witnesses “rumour.”
July 2023: The Supreme Courtroom bench, which granted bail to activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira arrested in 2018, stated it couldn’t settle for the NIA’s argument that the 2 “dedicated crimes associated to supporting terrorist organizations”. The Supreme Courtroom additionally said that the letters submitted as proof had “weak evidentiary weight and high quality.”
December 2023: The Excessive Courtroom granted bail to activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha, who was arrested in 2020, on the grounds that there was no covert or overt terrorist act underneath the UAPA. Bail was upheld by the Supreme Courtroom in Could 2024.
In its bail order, the excessive court docket stated the NIA’s submission of “hyperlinks” between Navlakha and Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, who was convicted by a US court docket in 2012 for having hyperlinks with Pakistan’s intelligence company ISI, was “irrelevant to the current crime”.
The court docket additionally termed a letter submitted by the NIA allegedly recovered from co-accused Gadling as “rumour proof”. The NIA claimed that the doc was written by one of many ‘Gautham Commissioners’ and that that individual was Navrakha.
The excessive court docket additionally identified that though Mr. Navlakha might prima facie be stated to be a member of the CPI (Maoist), this could appeal to the part of the UAPA which has a most sentence of seven to 10 years, whereas the part coping with terrorism doesn’t.
April 2024: The Supreme Courtroom granted bail to former Nagpur College professor Shoma Sen on the bottom of long-term imprisonment. Sen was arrested in 2018.
January 2025: The Excessive Courtroom granted bail to activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale, who have been arrested in 2018, on the grounds that they’d been in jail for a very long time.
September 2025: activist Mahesh Rautwas arrested in 2018 and granted bail by the Excessive Courtroom in September 2023, however remained in jail even after the Supreme Courtroom ordered a keep on his launch on attraction from the NIA. Mr Raut was lastly launched on interim bail in September this yr on medical grounds, which was prolonged by the Supreme Courtroom final month pending a daily bail listening to.
In its bail order in September 2023, the excessive court docket stated there was “completely no proof” that Raut had acquired cash from accomplices belonging to the CPI (Maoist) or that personnel had been recruited by way of him. As in Navlakha’s case, the excessive court docket stated that at most Raut could possibly be tried as a member of the CPI (Maoist).
November 2025: The Supreme Courtroom has granted interim bail to artist Jyoti Jagtap till her last bail listening to scheduled for February 2026, noting that she has spent a very long time in jail with out trial. She was arrested in 2020.
December 2025: Honey Babu, who was arrested in 2020, was granted bail by the Excessive Courtroom. Babu cited extreme delays within the trial and the truth that prosecutors had not but responded to a plea for launch filed two years in the past.
nonetheless in jail
Lawyer Surendra Gadling was arrested in June 2018. and cultural activists Sagar Gorke and Ramesh Ghaicho who have been arrested in September 2020.
Gorke’s bail utility is pending within the Excessive Courtroom.
