Bombay HC Grants Bail To Rona Wilson And Sudhir Dhawale In Bhima-Koregaon Elgar Parishad Case
A bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Kamal Khata noted the fact that the two have spent more than six years in jail as undertrials before granting the bail.
"They are in jail since 2018, even the charges in the case are yet to be framed. The prosecution has cited over 300 witnesses and thus there is no possibility of the trial to conclude in the near future," the bench said while granting bail, according to LiveLaw.
The accused, arrested in 2018 in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, were languishing in jail since six years and even the charges are yet to be framed by the special court, defence lawyers Mihir Desai and Sudeep Pasbola had argued.
The high court said it was not dealing with the merits of the case at this stage. Wilson and Dhawale were directed to submit a surety of Rs one lakh each, and appear before the special NIA court for the trial hearing.
The case pertains to provocative speeches allegedly delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, triggering violence at Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district the next day. The Pune police had claimed the conclave was backed by the Maoists.
The probe was later handed over to the National Investigation Agency. A totla of 16 persons were arrested in the case. However, many of the accused are now out on bail.
Rona Wilson, who was arrested in June 2018 in Delhi, was described by the probe agencies as one of the top brass of urban Maoists. Sudhir Dhawale was one of the first to be arrested and was accused of being an active member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
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