Bombay HC grants Bhima Koregaon accused Varavara Rao interim bail for six months
A bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale ordered that Rao be discharged from the hospital, depending on his current health condition, and released on bail immediately after his discharge.
FollowThe Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail to 82-year-old Bhima Koregaon accused Dr Varavara Rao on medical grounds.
The Court granted the octogenarian bail for a period of six months.
Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), is currently undergoing treatment in the Mumbai-based Nanavati Hospital where he had been admitted by the Maharashtra government following the high court’s intervention.
The order was passed by the bench in two separate pleas - one by Rao praying for bail and the other by his wife Pendyala Hemlatha – seeking the Court’s intervention in view of the alleged violation of his fundamental right to health, Bar & Bench reported.
Rao has been in custody since August 28, 2018, awaiting trial in the case. A bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale ordered that Rao be discharged from the hospital, depending on his current health condition, and released on bail immediately after his discharge.
Pronouncing its verdict today, the Bench held, "We feel that with the condition of the under trial, it would be inappropriate to send him back (to jail). It would be appropriate to impose such conditions."
The bench also imposed stringent conditions in Rao’s bail, including a direction to him to stay within the jurisdiction of the Mumbai NIA court for the period he is out on bail.
Rao will have to submit his passport before the NIA court, and he has been forbidden to establish any contact with his co-accused in the case. He will also have to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and two sureties of the like amount.
The case pertains to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, the police claimed, triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.
(With inputs from agency)
