Elgaar Parishad accused Ramesh Gaichor released on temporary bail to meet ailing father, jail authority apologises to Bombay HC for delay

The Bombay High Court had pulled up Taloja Prison authorities for not complying with its August 26 order for releasing Ramesh Gaichor on temporary bail. Ramesh Gaichor was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in 2020.

By: Express News Service

September 11, 2025 03:27 PM IST

3 min read

The court orally remarked that it was "sheer high-handedness" by the jail superintendent and warned of action against him.

The Taloja Prison authorities on Thursday tendered an unconditional apology before the Bombay High Court for not complying with its August 26 order and submitted that the Elgaar Parishad case accused Ramesh Gaichor was released on a three-day temporary bail on the night of September 10.

The High Court had granted temporary bail to Gaichor to visit his ailing father and directed the Taloja prison to release him on September 9, so that he would be back in jail on September 11. However, Senior Advocate Mihir Desai and Advocate Sanskruti Yagnik for Gaichor filed an application on Wednesday claiming that he was not released from prison despite the HC order, as the jail authorities insisted on a release warrant from the trial court.

On Thursday, Pramod Wagh, Superintendent of Taloja Central Prison, filed an affidavit tendering unconditional apology for not complying with the August 26 order. The affidavit informed the HC that Gaichor was released from jail after 10 pm on Wednesday.

The court accepted the apology and modified the duration of the temporary bail period from 11 pm on September 10 till 5 pm on September 13.

Ramesh Gaichor, who was part of the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch, was arrested along with others by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2020 for his alleged role in the controversial Elgaar Parishad event held in Pune on December 31, 2017.

A Division Bench led by Justice Ajey S Gadkari on Wednesday pulled up the jail authorities for not complying with its August 26 order and questioned as to what was the need for the release bond or warrant procedure to be followed when the HC had ordered his release.

The government lawyer had claimed that a warrant or bond was a general procedure followed while seeking a release, and that the delay took place due to a certain misunderstanding on the part of jail authorities, and such issues had also arisen in earlier cases.

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The court orally remarked that it was “sheer high-handedness” by the jail superintendent and warned of action against him.

The High Court, on August 26, passed an order on Gaichor’s criminal appeal challenging the July 1 order of the special court designated under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, which rejected his plea for temporary bail.

Gaichor had claimed that he had not met his over 75-year-old father, who is suffering from age-related ailments since his arrest in September 2020, and he was desirous to see him. The appellant had said that the trial court did not consider the said aspects and rejected his temporary bail plea.

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