News Analysis India

Tag: Varavara Rao

  • Elgar Parishad case: No NIA action till HC hears Varavara Rao’s medical bail extension plea on September 6

    By PTI

    MUMBAI:The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday told the Bombay High Court in an oral statement that it will not take any coercive action against poet-activist Varavara Rao till September 6 when his plea for medical bail extension will be heard.

    Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case and currently on interim medical bail granted by HC in February this year, is supposed to surrender before the Taloja prison authorities on September 5.

    Rao’s counsel, senior advocate Anand Grover, sought an extension of bail before a bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar on Friday.

    However, due to paucity of time, the matter could not be heard.

    HC said it will hear Rao’s plea on September 6.

    Grover then urged HC to ensure no coercive action was taken against Rao until then.

    Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, who appeared for NIA, in an oral statement said,”We will not take any coercive action until the next hearing.”

    On February 22 this year, a bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale had granted Rao (82) interim medical bail on “humanitarian grounds.”

    At the time, Rao, suffering from multiple ailments, was undergoing treatment at Nanavati hospital in Mumbai after being shifted out of Taloja jail following the court’s intervention.

    At the time, the HC had 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.

    The bench had imposed stringent bail conditions, including a direction to Rao to stay within the jurisdiction of the Mumbai NIA court for the period he was out on bail, as well as forbidding him from establishing any contact with his co-accused in the case.

  • Elgar Parishad case: Varavara Rao only accused to secure bail on health grounds, others still in jail

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The death of the 84-year-old Jesuit priest and activist Stan Swamy, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, at a hospital here while fighting a legal battle for bail on health grounds, has left many shocked, but there are 11 other accused arrested in connection with the same case who continue to remain lodged in jails for the past three years.

    Poet-activist Varavara Rao (81) is the only accused in the case to have secured an interim bail.

    The Bombay High Court had in February this year granted Rao conditional bail for six months considering his medical condition.

    Rao had been in jail since his arrest in August 2018.

    Another accused Hany Babu is presently admitted at the Breach Candy hospital at his own expense after he tested positive for COVID-19.

    Prominent among other accused, namely Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde, Rona Wilson, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira are still behind bars.

    Except for Bharadwaj, all the other accused remain lodged at the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai.

    Bharadwaj, 58, is currently lodged in Mumbai’s Byculla prison since her arrest in the case in August 2018.

    Last month, she filed a bail plea in the high court on the ground that the chargesheet in the case was not filed within the mandatory 90-day period and hence she was entitled for a default bail as per the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

    In May, Bharadwaj’s daughter Maaysha Singh had filed a petition seeking bail for her mother on medical grounds stating that prisoners are entitled to access their medical records and should be allowed to make a phone call to a family member after a hospital visit.

    The HC disposed of the plea after Singh’s lawyer submitted that Bharadwaj had received medical treatment.

    In May last year, Bharadwaj had sought interim bail before the lower court citing the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The plea was rejected.

    Activist Gautam Navlakha, 70, was arrested in October 2018 after remaining under house detention for a month.

    His bail plea was recently rejected by the Supreme Court.

    In December last year, Navlakha’s family had claimed that Taloja prison officials, where he is lodged, had refused to accept a parcel containing new spectacles for him as his had been stolen in jail.

    All these accused were booked in connection with the 2017 Pune Elgar Parishad case.

    Investigators had alleged that inflammatory and provocative speeches were made at this conclave on December 31, 2017, triggering violence at Koregaon Bhima in the Pune district the next day.

    The police had also alleged that the event was backed by some Maoist groups.

  • Varavara Rao discharged from hospital in Mumbai

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Poet-activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, has been discharged from Nanavati Hospital here, sources said.

    The 82-year-old activist, who was granted interim bail for six months on medical grounds by the Bombay High Court on February 22, was discharged from the private hospital late Saturday night, they said.

    Rao, arrested in 2018, was admitted to the medical facility in November last year due to ill-health.

    The HC had last month directed that he be released immediately on bail after being discharged from hospital.

    While granting him bail, the high court had asked Rao to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and two solvent sureties of the like amount.

    Rao later requested the court that he be allowed to furnish cash surety as the process of submitting solvent sureties was taking time.

    The court last Monday allowed Rao to furnish a cash surety of Rs 50,000 and gave him time till April 5 to submit the two solvent sureties of the same amount.

    The case is being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

    The HC while granting him bail imposed various conditions on his release, including a direction to remain in Mumbai, within the jurisdiction of the NIA court here.

    After the six-month period, Rao will have to either surrender before the trial court or approach the HC for extension of the bail period.

    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.

    The police have claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.

  • Activist Varavara Rao’s release delayed

    By Express News Service
    HYDERABAD: Despite the Bombay High Court granting him interim bail, ailing revolutionary poet Varavara Rao’s release would be further delayed as a court in Gadchiroli has asked his family to file deposit papers in the format that they have specified.

    Varavara Rao’s nephew N Venugopal posted on Facebook that they have collected the releasing orders from the Bombay High Court by depositing the cash security and assuring to provide property documents in five weeks. “But when we went to the Gadchiroli court, it said the documents should be in the specified format and would not accept the ones provided by the TS government,” he wrote.

  • Bombay HC allows Varavara Rao to furnish cash surety for release on bail in Elgar Parishad case

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday allowed ailing poet-activist Varavara Rao, accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to furnish a temporary cash surety for release on bail until the process of submitting solvent sureties is completed.

    Rao (82) was last week granted interim bail on medical grounds for six months by the HC which had asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and two solvent sureties of the like amount.

    Later, the activist, who is currently admitted in the Nanavati Hospital here since November last year, filed an application in the HC to allow him to furnish cash surety to seek urgent release as the process of submitting solvent sureties was taking time.

    A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale on Monday allowed Rao to furnish a cash surety of Rs 50,000 and gave him time till April 5 to submit the two solvent sureties of the same amount.

    The case is being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

    On February 24, Rao filed the application seeking modification of the bail order and permissionto deposit temporary cash bonds before the NIA court here, instead of the solvent sureties.

    Rao’s counsel Anand Grover had said the procedure for obtaining sureties was time-taking.

    He had sought permission to deposit the cash bonds for a period of two months and complete the solvent sureties formalities in such period.

    Rao will be released from the hospital once the bail formalities are completed.

    The high court while granting him bail imposed several conditions on his release, including a direction to him to remain in the city, within the jurisdiction of the NIA court in Mumbai.

    After the six-month period, Rao will have to either surrender before the trial court or approach the HC for extension of the bail period.

    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.

    The police have claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.

  • Varavara Rao’s bail conditions difficult to be met, says ailing activist’s family

    By PTI
    HYDERABAD: Relatives of ailing poet and activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, on Monday welcomed the Bombay High Court granting interim bail to him but said the conditions put forth by the court were difficult to be met.

    “We welcome this order. But it is only a small relief. The conditions put by the court are difficult to be met. In the light of revelation on the evidence, the case itself should be quashed,” Varavara Rao’s nephew N Venu Gopal told PTI.

    Venugopal said their lawyers are on the job of getting necessary documentation for Rao’s release on bail.

    The bench granted interim bail to Rao for six months on medical grounds, while directing him to stay within the jurisdiction of the NIA court in the city during this period.

    The court imposed a host of stringent conditions on his bail, including prohibiting him from establishing contact with co-accused in the case.

    It directed Rao to stay in Mumbai while on bail, make fortnightly WhatsApp video calls to the nearest Mumbai police station, and prohibited large gatherings or large group of visitors from meeting him while he is out on bail.

  • Bombay High Court reserves bail plea order of Varavara Rao  

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday reserved its order on the medical bail pleas of 81-year-old ailing Telugu poet and activist Varavara Rao, who is an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.

    Rao, who suffers from several medical complications was arrested on August 28, 2018, and is currently recuperating in Nanavati hospital, after the High Court’s intervention in November last year.

    His lawyers have sought for the octogenarian to be granted bail and sent back to his home, in Hyderabad, for at least three months, owing to his advanced age and neurological condition. While the National Investigating Agency (NIA) argued against setting him at liberty due to the serious allegations against him. They have, however, shown their willingness for him to be shifted to the prison ward of Sir JJ Hospital, where his condition could be monitored.

    The division bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale will also pass an order on Rao’s wife Pendyala Hemlatha’s petition for a declaration that her husband’s fundamental rights to health, dignity and life, and thereby his rights, under Article 21of the Constitution of India have been violated by prison officials.

    Senior Advocate Indira Jaising appearing on behalf of Hemlatha said that Rao has spent 149 days of the 365 days in a year, in a hospital ward. “Life is dear to everyone, including a prisoner, and the court is here to protect it.”

    As for the seriousness of the allegations, Jaising submitted, “It is a victimless crime, as not a single person is alleged to have been killed on account of violence unleashed by him.” She argued that the only allegation is that letters naming him have been recovered from the computer of a co-accused.

    Rao was admitted to JJ Hospital, last year. However, after he tested positive for the coronavirus, he was shifted to St. George Hospital and subsequently to Nanavati Hospital, after the Human Rights Commissions intervention. He was finally discharged from the hospital in July, 2020.

    During previous hearings, the Bombay court observed that Rao’s catheter remained unchanged for three months in Taloja 

  • Since February 2020, Varavara Rao has spent 149 days in hospitals: HC told

    Rao #39;s counsel Jaising argued that the 82-year-old poet #39;s continued incarceration was a breach of his fundamental right to life and health.

  • Consider Varavara Rao’s ‘offence’ when deciding on bail plea: NIA to HC

    The National Investigation Agency (NIA) made the submission while opposing the bail plea of Rao, arrested in the Elgar-Parishad-Maoist links case.

  • Varavara Rao is stable, reject his medical bail plea: NIA tells High Court

    The third one is a writ petition filed by Rao #39;s wife Hemlatha alleging a breach of his fundamental rights owing to lack of medical care during his continued incarceration.