Activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale were released from jail in Navi Mumbai on Friday, more than two weeks after the Bombay High Court granted them bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, PTI reported.

The High Court granted them bail on January 8, stating that the activists had been in jail since 2018 and “there is no possibility of the trial to conclude in the near future”.

Dhawale is the founder of the Dalit rights organisation Republican Panthers. He is also a well-known poet, political commentator and publisher of the Left-leaning Marathi magazine Vidrohi.

Wilson is an activist from Kerala and one of the founding members of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners.

They were among 16 academicians, activists and lawyers who were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for their alleged role in instigating caste violence at Bhima Koregaon near Pune in January 2018. They were also accused of having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Wilson and Dhawale walked out of the Taloja jail around 1.30 pm after completing bail formalities before a special National Investigation Agency court presiding over the case, reported PTI.

The High Court had asked them to furnish a surety of Rs 1 lakh as a condition for bail. They were also restricted from travelling outside Mumbai without court permission and told to surrender their passport. Both of them are required to report to the National Investigation Agency’s headquarters in Mumbai every week.

Of the 16 persons who have been arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died in custody at a Mumbai hospital in July 2021, nearly nine months after he was arrested. The 84-year-old suffered from several ailments including Parkinson’s disease and contracted Covid-19 while being held in Taloja.

Seven others who have been accused in the case have secured bail over the last six years, namely Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao and Shoma Sen.

In 2021, Arsenal Consulting, a United States-based digital forensics firm found that key evidence against some of them was planted using malware on a laptop belonging to Wilson before his arrest.

The Pune Police used incriminating letters it found on Wilson’s laptop as primary evidence in its chargesheet.

Among these was a letter that the police claimed Wilson had written to a Maoist militant, discussing the need for guns and ammunition as part of a conspiracy and even urging the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Arsenal Consulting found the letters had been planted in a hidden folder on Wilson’s laptop.

Wilson’s laptop was compromised “for just over 22 months”, the computer forensics firm said, adding that the attacker’s primary goals were “surveillance and incriminating document delivery”.