Bhima Koregaon Case : Supreme Court Extends Interim Bail Of Mahesh Raut Till November 26

The Supreme Court today(October 9) extended the interim bail granted to Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case accused Mahesh Sitaram Raut, arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, over alleged Maoist links, till November 26.

Raut was granted bail on September 16 for a period of six weeks by a bench comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Satish Kumar Sharma on medical grounds. The same bench today extended his interim medical bail. Raut has been in custody since his arrest in June 2018.

On earlier occasion, Senior Advocate CU Singh(for Raut) had submitted that he suffers from Rheumatoid Arthritis, which is an autoimmune disorder which attacks the bones and muscles.

Raut was granted bail on merits by the Bombay High Court on September 21, 2023, but the High Court had stayed the order for a week for the National Investigation Authority (NIA) to file an appeal.

Subsequently, the NIA filed an appeal before the Court, which was admitted by a bench comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Bela M Trivedi, which also extended one week's stay granted by the High Court till October 5, 2023. Since then, the stay has been extended from time to time.

Along with Raut, co-accused Jyoti Jagtap's matter is also listed before this bench. Jagtap, an activist and member of the cultural organisation 'Kala Kabir Manch', and 16 others were accused by the NIA of being responsible for the caste violence at Bhima Koregaon in Pune.

The Pune police (and later NIA) contended that inflammatory speeches at Elgar Parishad – an event to commemorate the two hundredth 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 arrest of 16 activists for allegedly conspiring and planning the violence. They were charged with various provisions of the UAPA based on letters and emails primarily retrieved from their electronic devices.

In February, 2022, a special NIA court rejected Jagtap's bail application, which was later upheld by the Bombay High Court in October. While rejecting her application, a division bench of the high court observed that dialogues in Kabir Kala Manch's plays that ridiculed words/phrases like 'Ram Mandir', 'Gomutra', and 'Acche Din' – aimed at the democratically elected government – incited hatred and indicated a larger conspiracy.

Case Details: THE NATIONAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY v MAHESH SITARAM RAUT AND ANR.|Crl.A. No. 3048/2023