Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on February 22 granted bail for six months on medical grounds to Varavara Rao, who has been in jail for over two years in the Koregaon-Bhima case.
“With all humility and human considerations, we are of the opinion that this is a fit case for allowing the relief,” said a Division Bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and Manish Pitale while granting bail to the 81-year-old poet-activist.
Rao is currently undergoing treatment at Mumbai’s Nanavati Hospital where was admitted by the Maharashtra government following the high court’s intervention.
Rao has been asked by the court to remain in Mumbai and be available for investigation whenever needed. He will also have to submit his passport before the National Investigation Agency court, and he has been forbidden to establish any contact with his co-accused in the case. He has to submit a personal bond of 50,000 rupees and two sureties of the same amount.
He has been in custody since August 28, 2018, awaiting trial in the case.
The high court said if it did not grant Rao medical bail, it would be abdicating its duty to protect the principles of human rights, and a citizen’s fundamental rights to life and health.
Among other ailments, Rao suffers from a neurological condition and will be fit for trial if he is with his family, said senior counsel Anand Grover who had previously urged the court to release Rao.
Welcoming the bail, Rao’s daughter Pavani said: “We are relieved. It is a big relief to us. Because for the last 2.5 years, no one was getting even a small relief in this case. This is the first relief in the BK [Bhima-Koregaon] case. We are very happy but the condition is there that we have to be in Mumbai. We have to think about that and plan. We will talk to the lawyers.”
In early February, Rao’s lawyer, Indira Jaising highlighted his poor health condition before the Bombay High Court, saying that of the 365 days since last February, he spent 149 days in hospital. She urged the court to let Rao out of Maharashtra’s Taloja prison where he is lodged as an undertrial, and to permit him to go home and stay with his family in Hyderabad.
The case, being probed by the National Investigation Agency, involves allegations of provocative speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed led to violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.
Rao and nine other activists were accused of plotting the violence with Maoists. Rao, who headed “Veerasam,” an association of revolutionary writers, has strongly denied the charge.
Source: ndtv.com