Elgar case: SC asks ex-DU prof Hany Babu to move HC or trial court for bail

New Delhi, Jul 16 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked former Delhi University's faculty Hany Babu to move either the Bombay High Court or the trial court for bail in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

A bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and P B Varale dismissed Babu's plea for a clarification on the point that his withdrawing the earlier appeal did not prevent the high court from hearing his bail application.

Babu withdrew his bail plea before the top court on May 3 last year in the case as he decided to move the high court.

His lawyer then said the high court court had granted bail to five co-accused persons in the case.

When Babu moved the high court, it said the apex court's order permitting the withdrawal of his plea did not reserve his liberty to move the high court and asked him to seek a clarification from the top court.

Babu's counsel on Wednesday submitted he had undergone five years as an undertrial and withdrawn the special leave petition from the top court to move the high court.

The NIA's counsel opposed the plea, calling the application not maintainable for a fresh bail application ought to go before the NIA court.

He said the high court was a court of appeal and the case involved Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act charges.

The bench then said, "Your primary ground is, some other accused has been granted bail, that can also be considered by the trial court." The apex court further remarked that it couldn't direct the high court to consider his bail plea and granted Babu the liberty to seek revival of his previous appeal withdrawn last year.

The high court on September 19, 2022 rejected his bail plea.

The NIA has accused Babu of being a co-conspirator in propagating Maoist activities and ideology on the instructions of leaders of the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation.

Babu was arrested in July 2020 in the case and is currently lodged at the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held in Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial located on the city's outskirts.

One person was killed and several others were injured in the violence.

The case, in which over a dozen activists and academicians had been named accused, was initially probed by the Pune Police and later taken over by the NIA. Babu approached the HC in June this year, challenging an order of the special NIA court here which rejected his bail plea earlier this year.

Babu, in his plea, had said the special court had "erred" in holding that there existed prima facie incriminating material against him.

The NIA had opposed the bail plea, arguing Babu actively participated in activities to promote Naxalism and wanted to overthrow the government. PTI PKS PKS AMK AMK