Bombay HC grants bail to Mahesh Raut in Elgaar Parishad case, stays order for a week after NIA’s request

A division bench of Justice Ajey S Gadkari and Justice Sharmila U Deshmukh concluded the hearing in the plea and reserved its verdict on September 12 and pronounced it on Thursday.

The bench observed that while sections 13 (unlawful activities) and 38 (membership of a terrorist organisation) of the UAPA Act were prima facie applicable against Raut, the evidence produced by NIA was not sufficient to prima facie prove offences under sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for terrorist act), and 18 (conspiracy) of the Act.

Raut, through senior advocates Mihir Desai and advocate Vijay Hiremath, referred to orders by the High Court and Supreme Court where co-accused Anand Teltumbde, Arun Ferreira, and Vernon Gonsalves were granted bail, and claimed he should be released on parity.

Desai also argued that Raut has spent over five years in custody and he deserved relief due to long incarceration without trial having commenced. Desai submitted that the evidence against Raut primarily consisted of documents recovered from co-accused Rona Wilson’s computer and the same were neither recovered from Raut nor written or signed by him.

Desai claimed Raut is not a member of the banned CPI(Maoist) and pointed out that he is a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship. He argued that the trial in the case has not commenced and it will take considerable time as the NIA has listed 336 witnesses in the same.

However, Additional Solicitor General Devang Vyas along with advocate Sandesh Patil for NIA opposed Raut’s plea and said there was sufficient material evidence to show his involvement in the offences under the UAPA and that a special NIA court had rightly rejected his bail plea earlier.

The NIA said Raut, who was a student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), as per letters found on the computer of a co-accused, was involved in Maoist activities and should not be granted bail.

The agency said the alleged acts committed by the applicant had a direct impact on the unity, integrity, security, and sovereignty of India. “Needless to revisit history even to date the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency has been plaguing this country that caused immense destruction, and very significantly took many lives of police, security personnel, etc, which is principally spearheaded by the Communist Party of India(Maoist),” the NIA said.

The central agency added, “The accused is one of those members who are part of giving mileage to such subversive activities against this country.”

Vyas argued there was a larger conspiracy to topple a democratically elected government.

The NIA said there is evidence to show that the CPI(Maoist) had given Raut Rs 5 lakh, along with co-accused Surendra Gadling and Sudhir Dhawale, who have also been arrested in the same case. The probe agency said there is sufficient evidence to show the accused had participated in various panchayat meetings in the Gadchiroli area of Maharashtra.

Responding to Raut’s prayer seeking relief claiming violation of his fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, the NIA said that as such it was not justifiable for an accused under the UAPA to seek relief on constitutional grounds when his acts are against the interest of the state and society.

So far, six of the 16 accused arrested in the case, including Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and Raut, have been granted bail by the High Court or Supreme Court. While Bharadwaj was granted default bail by the HC, Rao was granted bail on medical grounds. One of them, Gautam Navlakha, is under house arrest.