Elgar Parishad case: Varavara Rao only accused to secure bail on health grounds

The death of the 84yearold Jesuit priest and activist Stan Swamy an accused in the Elgar ParishadMaoist 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 yearsPoetactivist 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 conditionRao 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 Covid19 Prominent among other accused namely Sudha Bharadwaj Gautam Navlakha Anand Teltumbde Rona Wilson Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira are still behind barsExcept for Bharadwaj all the other accused remain lodged at the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai Bharadwaj 58 is currently lodged in Mumbais 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 90day period and hence she was entitled for a default bail as per the Criminal Procedure Code CrPCIn May Bharadwajs 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 Singhs lawyer submitted that Bharadwaj had received medical treatmentIn May last year Bharadwaj had sought interim bail before the lower court citing the Covid19 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 CourtIn December last year Navlakhas 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 caseInvestigators 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 groupsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever