Gadchiroli Blast Case: Bombay High Court Grants Bail To 72-Yrs-Old Alleged Naxal Operative

On May 1, 2019 fifteen security personnel from the Quick Response Team (QRT) and one civilian were killed in an IED explosion attack in Gadchiroli. The case was subsequently transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Rani was arrested by the Gadchiroli police along with his wife, Nirmala Uppuganti (60) and six others. Earlier this year Uppuganti passed away at a hospice – a facility meant for terminally ill cancer patients.

The police accused them of being members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and booked them under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Rani approached the High Court after the Special NIA Court refused bail, last year.

Today, a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and VG Bisht granted Rani bail. The bench had rapped the National Investigation Agency (NIA) during the bail hearing for using evidence from another case to oppose bail to Rani.

According to the NIA, Rani had participated in a conspiracy meeting held a year before the attack. The agency said that the meeting was attended by nearly 300 naxals and the motive was avenging the death of 14 persons by security forces in 2018. They had also cited the seizure of Rs 10.32 lakh cash recovered from Rani and his wife.

In his bail appeal Rani had said that a specific role was not attributed to him. He wasn't involved with the planning, procurement, planting, monitoring of vehicles or execution of the IED blast in any way. Neither was he named by a single witness or in a confessional statement.

Advocate Payoshi Roy for Rani further argued that it was the prosecution's own case that Rani was in Hyderabad for his wife's cancer treatment when the present offence was planned and executed.

Moreover, she argued that the 72-years-old is suffering from cerebral cavernoma, a condition where a cluster of abnormal blood vessels is formed in the brain leading to tremors, seizures, severe headaches and haemorrhages in the brain. He is also suffering from extensive spinal cord damage, misalignment of his knee joint and tremors in both hands.

They were booked under sections 302, 353, 120B, 147-149, 427 of the IPC, sections 16,18,20,23 of UAPA, sections 4 and 5 of Explosive Substances Act, and sections 5 and 8 of the Arms Act.

Case Title: Sathyanarayana Rani v. State

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Bom) 255