A Bombay High Court judge on Thursday recused himself from hearing an appeal by activist and writer Anand Teltumbde demanding that he be discharged from the Bhima Koregaon case, Live Law reported.

Justice Sarang Kotwal declined to hear the matter on the grounds that he had earlier heard and decided on bail applications of accused persons in the case, including Teltumbde.

Teltumbde moved the Bombay High Court against an order of a special National Investigation Agency court from May rejecting his discharge petition.

Teltumbde is one of the 16 persons who were arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case concerning caste violence in a village near Pune in January 2018.

The National Investigation Agency has claimed that Teltumbde was among the convenors of the Elgar Parishad held on December 31, 2017, which allegedly sparked the violence at Bhima Koregaon the following day.

The writer and activist was arrested in April 2020 and imprisoned for about 30 months.

On November 18, 2022, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Teltumbe. It, however, had put a stay on his bail order for a week as the National Investigation Agency had asked for time to file an appeal in the top court.

Teltumbde walked out of jail a week later after the Supreme Court dismissed the agency’s plea challenging his bail.

In the bail order, the Bombay High Court bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Milind Jadhav had observed that offences under Sections 13 (unlawful activities), 16 (terrorist act) and 18 (conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act had not been made out against Teltumbde.

The High Court noted that only offences under Sections 38 (membership of terrorist organisation) and 39 (support given to terrorist organisation) of the law were made out.