SC grants interim bail to Elgaar Parishad case accused Jyoti Jagtap

Jyoti Jagtap was the 15th person to be arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case. She was arrested in September 2020 by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, and handed over to NIA.

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The Supreme Court also extended the interim bail granted to co-accused Mahesh Raut in the case till the next date of hearing. (Express file photo)

The Supreme Court Wednesday granted interim bail to Jyoti Jagtap, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case who was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967, for alleged links with banned Maoist outfits.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and S C Sharma granted her bail till it hears the matter next on February 26.

Appearing for the accused, Senior Advocate Aparna Bhat pointed out that Jagtap had spent over five years in custody.

The court also extended the interim bail granted to co-accused Mahesh Raut in the case till the next date of hearing.

Jagtap was the 15th person to be arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case. She was arrested in September 2020 by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, and handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), to which the case was transferred.

Previous bail appeals

Jagtap, a singer-poet, was a member of the Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural group known for its anti-caste, social change performances. In a previously filed case against other members of the group, ATS claimed that Kabir Kala Manch was a front for Maoists. The case filed in 2011 is still pending trial.

Her arrest followed that of two of her co-members of the group, Ramesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe, also poets and performers. They remain in custody in the Elgaar case in a Mumbai jail.

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The first bail application by Jagtap, lodged in the Byculla women’s jail in Mumbai, was rejected by the special court in February 2022. The court had then said that pamphlets related to the Elgaar Parishad gathering held in Pune in December 2017 mentioned Jagtap and Gorkhe as the organisers.

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The Pune police had claimed that violence on January 1, 2018, at Bhima Koregaon was a result of the Elgaar Parishad event, claiming it was part of a conspiracy of the banned CPI (Maoist).

While Jagtap’s lawyers had denied this link and said that the protest against the government cannot relate to the invocation of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the court noted there is prima facie material to show her involvement and rejected her plea.

Her appeal filed before the Bombay High Court against the special court’s order was rejected in October 2022, which observed that she was in active touch with all other co-accused working for different mask organisations to further the objectives of the banned terrorist organisation CPI(Maoist).

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Other Elgaar Parishad case accused

The other accused arrested in the case have filed pleas questioning the evidence, claiming that malware was installed on their electronic devices before their arrests. They have also raised the issue that the trial has not yet commenced.

The Pune police had initially arrested nine people in 2019, and NIA arrested seven others. Of the 16, Father Stan Swamy passed away in custody in 2021, 10 are now out of jail, and five remain in custody, including Mahesh Raut. The Bombay High Court granted Raut bail in September 2023, but he remains behind bars as his bail plea is pending before the Supreme Court.

The ones still in custody are Raut, Gorkhe, Gaichor, lawyer Surendra Gadling and Delhi University professor Hany Babu.

The charges in the case have yet to be framed, and the trial court is currently hearing the accused’s discharge applications.