The Bombay High Court on Monday reserved its order on a plea seeking medical bail for 81-year-old activist Varavara Rao, who was arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, reported Live Law.

Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, representing Rao, argued for the bail, saying that the crime for which the activist was arrested was not a serious one. She also cited the case of Kanchan Nanaware, a students rights activist accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Jaising said that Nanaware died in prison after six years of incarceration before her trial could begin and her medical bail was decided.

“Life is dear to everyone, including a prisoner, and the court is here to protect it,” Jaising said. “The record speaks for itself, out of 365 days in a year he has spent 149 days in hospital.” Rao is currently admitted to Nanavati Hospital where he undergoing treatment for various ailments.

The High Court said that reports of various hospitals, including St George Hospital, about Rao’s conditions cannot be ignored. St George Hospital report had confirmed that the activist has dementia. “He is neurologically compromised,” Justice SS Shinde said. “The best treatment is with friends and family.”

The High Court also asked Senior Advocate Anil Grover about the National Investigation Agency’s proposal to release Rao on bail but keep him in Mumbai. Grover replied that he agreed with the suggestion but pointed out that Rao’s family lives in Hyderabad and that it would be problematic for them. “Everyone is working in the family and all of them take turns to come,” he said.

Grover appealed to the court to allow Rao to go to Hyderabad for six months. “Even when there were serious charges against him, he has stood trial,” He said. “It’s an exemplary record. He has either been acquitted or discharged [except for three pending including the present one].”

Chief Public Prosecutor for the State Deepak Thakre said Taloja prison, where Rao is lodged, does not have the required medical facilities and the type of monitoring being sought cannot be done. Thakre said that therefore they were proposing to keep Rao at JJ Hospital.

The Bhima Koregaon case

Several activists and academics have been accused of making inflammatory speeches at the Elgar Parishad conclave held at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the authorities claim triggered violence at Bhima-Koregaon war memorial the next day. One person was killed and several others were injured in the incident.

The first chargesheet was filed by the Pune Police in November 2018, which ran to over 5,000 pages. It had named activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, all of whom were arrested in June 2018. The police had claimed that those arrested had “active links” with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and accused activists of plotting to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A supplementary chargesheet was filed later in February 2019, against human rights activists Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) leader Ganapathy. The accused were charged with “waging war against the nation” and spreading the ideology of the CPI (Maoist), besides creating caste conflicts and hatred in the society.

The Centre transferred the case to the National Investigation Agency in January 2020 after the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra, led by Devendra Fadnavis, was defeated.

Eight people who have been named in the NIA chargesheet for the January 2018 violence are former IIT professor Anand Teltumbde, his brother Milind Teltumbde, activist-journalist Gautam Navlakha, Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu, three members of the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch and Swamy. Of them, Milind Teltumbde has been named as an absconding accused and top operative of CPI (Maoist) in the chargesheet.