Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Delhi University professor Hany Babu, who was arrested in 2020 for his alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, legal news websites reported.
A division bench of Justice A.S. Gadkari and Justice Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale granted him bail.
He will be released after depositing a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh along with sureties. A detailed order is awaited.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested Babu in July 2020 under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for alleged links to Maoists in the Bhima Koregaon case and involvement in an alleged conspiracy to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In February 2022, a trial court in Maharashtra rejected the bail plea filed by Babu and three others. In September 2022, the Bombay High Court upheld the trial court’s decision to reject his bail plea.
This was challenged before the Supreme Court and in January this year the top court sought the NIA’s response to his regular bail plea.
In May 2024, Babu withdrew the special leave petition filed in the Supreme Court, stating that he wished to approach the high court for bail citing a change in circumstances. Eight of the accused in the case were granted bail by the Supreme Court and the high court.
In July this year, the Supreme Court allowed Babu to approach either the trial court or the high court seeking bail. He then filed the present petition before the high court.
He highlighted that he has spent over five years and two months in prison without trial and that proceedings in the special court have also been delayed.
He was also accused of being part of a committee that supported G.N. Saibaba, a fellow academic who was sentenced to life imprisonment for alleged Maoist connections. Saibaba was acquitted by the Bombay High Court on 14 October, 2022 and died two years later.
During the course of Babu’s hearing, additional solicitor general Anil Singh argued that the accused had not spent a substantial period in prison like Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawade and therefore could not be granted bail merely on the basis of long incarceration.
Babu’s counsel Yug Mohit Chaudhary argued for bail on grounds of inordinate delay in the trial.