Elgaar Parishad case: Bombay HC rejects Varavara Rao’s plea seeking permanent medical bail

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed pleas filed by Elgaar Parishad accused Varavara Rao, who had sought permanent medical bail and permission to shift to his residence at Hyderabad in Telangana, citing ill health and high expenses in Mumbai.

The court, however, extended his interim bail by three months to let him undergo cataract surgery. Rao was granted bail by HC on health grounds on February 22, last year, and the same was extended from time to time.

According to The Indian Express, the court said it found some substance in contentions raised by the petitioner over conditions at Taloja central prison and said that it noted some deficiencies and passed directions in that regard.

The court, therefore, directed Maharashtra Inspector General of prisons to submit a “candid” report on the state of such facilities at the “Taloja prison in particular,” and also in all prisons across the state. The HC directed the IG to submit the report to the court by April 30 this year.

“The IG prisons must ensure that henceforth, there remain no grounds for inmates to raise grievances on inadequate health facilities in prisons across the state,” the court said. It also directed the special NIA court to expedite the trial in the Elgar Parishad case, and to conduct the trial proceedings on a day-to-day basis.

He had sought that his medical bail be extended by another six months, an application seeking modification of his temporary medical bail conditions – he sought that while out on bail, he be permitted to stay in his home town Hyderabad in Telangana, and a plea that he be granted permanent bail on health grounds till the conclusion of the case trial.

His counsel had told the HC that Rao, who has early signs of Parkinson’s disease, was living in Mumbai’s Bandra area in a conference facility rented out to him by some Christain missionaries.

The NIA’s counsel, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, had opposed all of Rao’s prayers and urged the HC to send him back to prison. Singh had argued that hundreds of other inmates, who were senior citizens and suffered from health ailments, continued to remain in prison and were provided with medical care in prison hospital.

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 Pune police had also claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links. Later, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe into the case.