Varavara Rao gets bail in Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case

The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail on medical grounds to ailing poetactivist Varavara Rao in connection with a 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson caseRao 82 and advocate Surendra Gadling were arrested by the Gadchiroli police in Maharashtra in February 2019 in connection with the caseJustice Swapna Joshi of the HCs Nagpur bench granted bail to Rao on similar grounds on which the principal bench of the high court on Monday granted bail to him in the Elgar ParishadMaoist links caseRao suffers from a host of ailments including symptoms of dementia as per his lawyersHis advocates Firdos Mirza and Nihalsingh Rathod said the activist had sought bail on health and medical grounds and not on merits of the case pertaining to arson at the iron ore mine at Surjagarh in GadchiroliWe pointed out to the court here Nagpur the order passed by the division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale on Monday granting Rao interim bail for six months after considering his health condition Mirza told PTIJustice Joshi after perusing the order of the division bench granted interim bail to Rao for the same period in the arson case too he saidOn December 25 2016 Naxals allegedly set ablaze least 80 vehicles engaged in transporting iron ore from Surjagarh mines in Etapalli tehsil of GadchiroliRao who is currently admitted in the Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai had sought bail on medical grounds in the Elgar ParishadMaoist links case which is being probed by the National Investigation Agency NIAThe 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 KoregaonBhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra cityThe police have claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist linksRao is accused of serious offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA in the caseThe Bombay High Court on Monday while granting interim bail to Rao for six months imposed several conditions on him including restricting him from leaving Mumbai and prohibiting him from establishing any contact with coaccused in the caseThe high court said after the end of the sixmonth period Rao shall either surrender before the special NIA court in Mumbai or file an application before HC seeking extension of the sameThis 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