Elgaar Parishad case: Only 1 accused yet to get bail as Bombay HC grants relief to 2 Kabir Kala Manch members

The Bombay High Court Friday granted bail to accused Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, members of the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch, in the Elgaar Parishad case. With this, only one accused arrested in the case, Surendra Gadling, remains to get bail.

A division bench of Justices Ajey S Gadkari and Shyam C Chandak allowed the appeals filed by Gorkhe and Gaichor against the February 2022 order of the special NIA court in Mumbai, which had rejected their bail pleas in the case.

The Pune police had made nine arrests in the case in 2018, and another seven people were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after it took over the investigation in January 2020. Those arrested include prominent lawyers, activists and academics, who were accused of being members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and furthering the cause of the Maoists.

On Friday, the court directed Gorkhe and Gaichor to be released on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each, along with sureties of the same amount. The court also asked them to attend the NIA office in Mumbai on the first Monday of every month and attend all dates before the trial court unless precluded on medical grounds. It directed that the two cannot leave the territorial jurisdiction of the Bombay High Court without prior permission of the special court.

The NIA had claimed before the high court that Gorkhe and Gaichor, currently lodged at Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai, were part of the Elgaar Parishad event held in Pune on December 31, 2017. As per the central agency, the two had performed a skit which spoke about the rule of the Peshwas and democracy.

In its chargesheet, the agency claimed that Milind Teltumbde, a wanted accused in the case, had discussed about the event with the two men as well as co-accused Jyoti Jagtap, and Maoist ideology was being spread at the event with the help of the accused.

However, the two claimed there was no evidence produced by the central agency to establish that they had committed any offence under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) or sedition, for which they were booked.

The trial in the case is yet to begin before the special court. Gorkhe was recently granted interim bail for attending a law examination and was directed to surrender after it ended.

Twelve of the 16 accused arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case are already out of jail. While Father Stan Swamy passed away in custody in 2021, three people remained in custody. This included lawyer Surendra Gadling, who was arrested in 2018, and poets-singers Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, who were arrested in 2020. Now the Bombay High Court has granted them bail, paving the way for their release.

Gadling, a lawyer practising in Nagpur and Gadchiroli, has spent over seven years in jail and is yet to get bail in the case.

Ten accused, including Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Shoma Sen, Gautam Navlakha, Sudhir Dhawale, and Rona Wilson, were given bail by courts and were released. Last month, the high court had granted bail to Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu, another accused in the case, and he was released thereafter.

In November last year, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Jyoti Jagtap. Accused Mahesh Raut was also released on six-week medical bail by the Supreme Court, which was later extended.

Omkar Gokhale is a journalist reporting for The Indian Express from ... Read More