The Bombay High Court on Monday extended academic Anand Teltumbde’s interim protection from arrest until the next hearing of his plea for anticipatory bail on February 22. Teltumbde is being investigated for his alleged connection with violence that broke out at Bhima Koregaon near Pune in January 2018.

The High Court added that in the case of arrest, Teltumbde could be released on bail after providing a bond of Rs 1 lakh. Teltumbde has also been directed to appear before the investigating officer of the case on February 14 and 18.

On January 14, the Supreme Court rejected Teltumbde’s plea to quash the case against him, but granted him protection from arrest for four weeks while he approached lower courts for anticipatory bail.

Though the protection was due to expire on February 11, the Pune police arrested the Goa-based professor from Mumbai airport the night after the Pune sessions court rejected his application on February 2. Hours later, the sessions court ruled that the arrest was illegal and granted Teltumbde further protection from arrest until he could approach the Bombay High Court.

Teltumbde has called the charges against him the “vilest plot in post-Independence India” in an open letter he wrote the day after the Supreme Court declined to quash charges against him. In a press conference after the Pune police released him, Teltumbde said there was no such thing as an urban Maoist and that this term had been fabricated by the Pune police.