MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday granted bail to Mahesh Raut (33), a researcher from Chandrapur accused in the January 2018 Elgar Parishad case of alleged Maoists links and facing the prospect of a long-drawn trial under the stringent anti-terror law-UAPA . The bail is set for a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh.
The HC, passing order on merits, the only second such in the case lodged in Pune, said on perusing the case record, it appeared that “no covert or overt terrorist act has been attributed” to Raut. A bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Sharmila Deshmukh said “communications seized from the computers of co-accused (Rona Wilson) are in the nature of hearsay” as far as Raut is concerned.
The HC stayed its order for a week after the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which took over the case in 2020, requested a two week stay to enable it to go in appeal. Raut, who also worked in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra as a tribal rights activist, had filed for bail on merits of the case last year before the HC. The special NIA court rejected his bail plea in November 2021. The HC observed that while sections 13 (unlawful activities) and 38 (membership of a terrorist organisation) of the UAPA Act were prima facie applicable against Raut, the evidence produced by NIA was not sufficient to prima facie prove offences under sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for terrorist act), and 18 (conspiracy) of the Act.
Senior counsel Mihir Desai for Raut had submitted that there was not even a prima facie case made out against the activist-accused. Desai had also cited the cyber forensic report of a private US lab, Arsenal Consulting, of February and March 2021, to argue how they indicated that the computers of the accused were compromised and thus the “non reliability” of prosecution evidence. Desai had also sought bail citing delay in trial and parity, citing bail granted to co-accused Anand Teltumbde – (on merits) by the HC, and more recently to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Fereira by the Supreme Court in the same case.
The Pune police arrested Raut on June 6, 2018. The HC said he has no criminal antecedents. For the NIA, additional solicitor general (ASG) Devang Vyas opposed the bail plea citing documents recovered from computers of co-accused, statements of witnesses and other evidence to argue that the agency has a strong case of his involvement in terror offences under the UAPA. HC said there was nothing on record to back NIA’s case that Raut was a recruiter for the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a banned outfit. In Raut’s case, there is nothing yet to show he “indulged in a terrorist act”, said the HC, adding that at best, he is a member of CPI (Maoist), which attracts maximum 10 years’ imprisonment.
The HC, passing order on merits, the only second such in the case lodged in Pune, said on perusing the case record, it appeared that “no covert or overt terrorist act has been attributed” to Raut. A bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Sharmila Deshmukh said “communications seized from the computers of co-accused (Rona Wilson) are in the nature of hearsay” as far as Raut is concerned.
The HC stayed its order for a week after the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which took over the case in 2020, requested a two week stay to enable it to go in appeal. Raut, who also worked in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra as a tribal rights activist, had filed for bail on merits of the case last year before the HC. The special NIA court rejected his bail plea in November 2021. The HC observed that while sections 13 (unlawful activities) and 38 (membership of a terrorist organisation) of the UAPA Act were prima facie applicable against Raut, the evidence produced by NIA was not sufficient to prima facie prove offences under sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for terrorist act), and 18 (conspiracy) of the Act.
Senior counsel Mihir Desai for Raut had submitted that there was not even a prima facie case made out against the activist-accused. Desai had also cited the cyber forensic report of a private US lab, Arsenal Consulting, of February and March 2021, to argue how they indicated that the computers of the accused were compromised and thus the “non reliability” of prosecution evidence. Desai had also sought bail citing delay in trial and parity, citing bail granted to co-accused Anand Teltumbde – (on merits) by the HC, and more recently to Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Fereira by the Supreme Court in the same case.
The Pune police arrested Raut on June 6, 2018. The HC said he has no criminal antecedents. For the NIA, additional solicitor general (ASG) Devang Vyas opposed the bail plea citing documents recovered from computers of co-accused, statements of witnesses and other evidence to argue that the agency has a strong case of his involvement in terror offences under the UAPA. HC said there was nothing on record to back NIA’s case that Raut was a recruiter for the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a banned outfit. In Raut’s case, there is nothing yet to show he “indulged in a terrorist act”, said the HC, adding that at best, he is a member of CPI (Maoist), which attracts maximum 10 years’ imprisonment.
