Supreme Court Grants 2-Week Interim Bail To Bhima Koregaon Case Accused Mahesh Raut To Attend Grandmother's Post Funeral Rituals

The Supreme Court today granted interim bail to Bhima Koregaon case accused Mahesh Raut for two weeks in order to attend ceremonies related to last rites of his grandmother.

The vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti granted him interim bail from June 26 to July 10. The interim bail will be subject to the terms and conditions set by the trial court. The accused has to surrender without fail on July 10, the Court clarified.

Advocate Aparna Bhat, appearing for the Raut, pointed out that Raut has already been granted bail by the Bombay High Court but the order has been stayed. She submitted that his grandmother passed away in the last week of May and certain last rite ceremonies are to be performed.

The counsel appearing for the NIA submitted that the application should be preferred before the NIA Court. However, Bhat replied that since the NIA's petition challenging the bail order is pending in the Supreme Court, the Special Court will not entertain the application.

Briefly put, Raut, a tribal rights activist, has been charged under Section 15 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 in connection with the Bhima Koregaon caste-based violence of 2018. He is accused of having had links with the banned CPI (Maoist) and waging a war against the country.

Raut was arrested in June, 2018. After more than 5 years, the Bombay High Court granted him bail in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad larger conspiracy case, prima facie observing that there was no evidence against him. In arriving at the decision, the court also noted that he had spent 5 years and 3 months inside jail without trial.

The bail order was, however, stayed by the High Court and the stay eventually extended by the Supreme Court.

Before the top Court, the case was last listed on June 14, when a vacation bench of Justices PV Sanjay Kumar and AG Masih was informed that Raut's grandmother's funeral was on May 26, but the remaining ceremonies were scheduled for June 27. The matter was adjourned at the request of counsel for National Investigating Agency (NIA), who sought time to seek instructions and file a reply.

Background

The National Investigation Agency has accused 16 people viz. Jyoti Raghoba Jagtap, Sagar Tatyaram Gorkhe, Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu and Father Stan Swamy of being responsible for the 2018 violence at Bhima Koregaon, Pune.

One among these accused, Raut has been lodged in jail since June, 2018 over allegations of having links with the proscribed far-left outfit Communist Party of India (Maoists).

As per the Pune police and NIA, inflammatory speeches at Elgar Parishad – an event to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima – triggered the violent clashes that broke out between Maratha and Dalit groups near the village of Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra. This led to the 16 activists being arrested for allegedly conspiring and planning the violence, and charged with various provisions of the UAPA, based on letters and emails primarily retrieved from their electronic devices.

Specifically, the allegations against Raut are that he was a member of CPI (Maoist) and recruited others in the organization. Moreover, a letter was found in co-accused Rona Wilson's laptop wherein it was written that Rs. 5 lakhs were given to Raut to be handed over to a co-accused.

In September, 2023, the Bombay High Court granted Raut bail (making him the 6th person to get bail in the case). However, the court stayed the operation of the order for one week at the request of the NIA, allowing the probe agency to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.

While admitting NIA's appeal, the Supreme Court extended the stay on the bail order passed by the High Court.

Notably, one of the co-accused, Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy, passed away in custody in July 2021.

In December, 2021, Bombay High Court granted default bail to Sudha Bhardwaj. NIA's challenge to the same was rejected by the Supreme Court. In 2022, Anand Teltumbde got bail on merits and NIA's challenge to the same was also rejected.

In August, 2022, 82-yr old Varavara Rao got bail from the Supreme Court on medical grounds. In July, 2023, the top Court granted bail to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.

In April, 2024, bail was granted to professor Shoma Sen. A month later, the benefit was extended to journalist and activist Gautam Navlakha. The bail plea of Jyoti Jagtap is scheduled to be heard in July. 

Case Details: THE NATIONAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY V. MAHESH SITARAM RAUT, Crl.A. No.3048 / 2023