Bhima Koregaon case: Bombay High Court grants bail to activist Anand Teltumbde

Mumbai: In the Bhima Koregaon case, the Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to scholar-activist Anand Teltumbde on the surety of Rs 1 lakh. The High Court further stayed the order for one week on the National Investigation Agency`s request to appeal in the Supreme Court. This means that 73-year-old Teltumbde will not be able to walk out of jail till then.

According to reports, a division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and M N Jadhav allowed the bail plea filed by Teltumbde, who has been in jail since his arrest in the case in April 2020. The court granted him bail on a surety of Rs one lakh. In his plea, Teltumbde had claimed that he was never present at December 31, 2017, Elgar Parishad event held in Pune nor made any provocative speeches, said a PTI report.

Teltumbde is the third accused in the case to be granted bail. Poet Varavara Rao is out on medical bail and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj is out on regular bail.

Elgar Parishad case: Bombay HC bench recuses from hearing bail pleas of DU professor Hany Babu, Gautam Navlakha

In the Elgar Parishad event to mark 200 years of the Bhima-Koregaon battle, the violence had erupted leaving one dead and several injured, including 10 policemen. The police had filed 58 cases against 162 people during a state-wide shutdown in January 2017 following clashes in Bhima-Koregaon.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted bail to 82-year-old activist P Varavara Rao in the case. On Thursday, the Supreme Court in an interim order permitted Gautam Navlakha, another Bhima Koregaon accused case, to be placed under house arrest for a period of one month considering his health condition and old age.

An apex court bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy ordered Navlakha to deposit an amount of Rs 2.4 lakh as expenses to be incurred for his security cover when he is under house arrest. He shall deposit a demand draft of Rs 2.4 lakh by the name of Commissioner of Police, Navi Mumbai.

"We consider it appropriate to grant house arrest given his age. Still, further, our attention is drawn to the multiple medical problems the petitioner is faced with, and that charges have not been framed in a trial that will not happen in the foreseeable future," the bench reportedly observed during the hearing.

Navlakha had moved the top court requesting that he be placed under house arrest instead of judicial custody in Taloja jail, Maharashtra. 

(With ANI/PTI Inputs)