Varavara Rao gets bail in Surjagad arson case

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has granted interim bail to 82-year old poet and activist Varavara Rao in the 2016 Surjagad arson case of Gadchiroli.

A bench of Justice Swapna Joshi granted the interim bail for six months to Rao on Tuesday after Rao’s lawyers Firdaus Mirza and Nihal Singh Rathod moved an application, in view of the Principal Bench of the High Court at Mumbai granting bail to Rao, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, on Monday on medical grounds.

“We moved the HC here for bail in the Surjagad case, citing Monday’s judgment by the Bombay HC. We told the court that unless the Nagpur bench also grants him relief, the Principal Bench judgment will not be executable. The bench was convinced and ordered Rao’s release on interim bail of six months on the same grounds as considered by the Principal Bench,” Mirza told The Indian Express.

Rao was arrested in the Surjagad case in January 2019 and has already been chargesheeted.

The Gadchiroli Police had named him in the case of Surjagad arson, in which Naxals had set fire to about 80 vehicles near an iron ore mine at Surjagad in Etapalli tahsil of the district on December 25, 2016.