Mumbai, May 4 The Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail to activist Surendra Gadling, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case in 2018, on grounds of his long incarceration and the possibility of the trial not commencing in the near future.
A bench headed by Justice A S Gadkari, which heard Gadling's plea, also noted that all the other accused in the case are already out on bail and hence he, too, should be given the same relief on parity.
With this, all the accused previously arrested in the more than eight-year-old case are out on bail now.
Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old priest and tribal rights activist, died while in custody in July 2021, awaiting trial.
At least 16 people, including prominent lawyers, activists, and academics, were booked in connection with allegedly provocative speeches that were delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held at Shaniwarwada, an 18th-century palace-fort located in the heart of Pune city, on December 31, 2017.
According to the police, the speeches triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima, on the outskirts of Pune city, the next day.
The Pune police, which initially probed the case, claimed that Maoists had backed the conclave. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) later took over the probe into the case.
The other accused in the case include Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Shoma Sen, Gautam Navlakha, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Jyoti Jagtao and Mahesh Raut.
