Mumbai, Aug 29 (PTI) A special court here on Saturday refused to cancel the bail of four accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, holding that there was no evidence they had attended a Press Club gathering here to deliberate on plans for spreading urban Naxalism.
The court, however, cautioned them to take “proper care” to avoid breaching the bail conditions.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had sought the cancellation of bails of Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Varavara Rao, alleging that they violated bail conditions by attending a Mumbai Press Club event earlier this year.
The court emphasised that the bar on communicating with co-accused is meant to prevent them from indulging in similar alleged offences, not to penalise ordinary human interaction.
The investigating agency had claimed that they attended the January 19 (2026) gathering convened with the intention to propagate Maoist ideology in “blatant and wilful disregard” of bail conditions.
The event was convened with the intention of propagating the ideology of the proscribed organisation CPI (Maoist) and to deliberate upon the future course of action for spreading the “Urban Naxal” movement, it claimed.
As part of its separate pleas, the NIA submitted an inquiry report from the Mumbai Press Club and CCTV footage of the gathering.
However, the special NIA judge Chakor Baviskar noted that while the CCTV footage submitted by the NIA confirmed the presence of the accused alongside several other persons, no audio is available in the footage.
Hence, it cannot be concluded what conversation the accused had in between, the court said.
“Even otherwise, if the tempo, the temperament and overall mood of the function along with body language of the accused is any indication, it can hardly be concluded or even can be imagined that the accused were discussing the serious issues like ideology of the proscribed organisation,” the judge said.
Further, the court pointed out that the prosecution should have supported “with some acceptable evidence” their allegations.
There was no evidence “which would compel” it to accept the accused with these specific intentions had gathered over there with co-accused, the court said.
The judge remarked that co-accused routinely meet inside and outside courtrooms during hearings and converse about their cases and personal well-being.
“By that alone, they cannot be said to be committing any breach…Merely because the venue of the meeting/gathering of the accused changed, they cannot be said to have committed breach of the bail condition,” the order stated.
The court emphasised that as a matter of caution as “the accused could and should have recused” from the gathering at the Press Club.
“The accused is expected to take proper care and caution even to avoid the possibility of committing breach of any of the bail conditions,” the court held, while rejecting NIA’s pleas.
The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.
The Pune police, which probed the case initially, had claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links. An FIR was lodged by the police on January 8, 2018 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The NIA later took over the probe in the case, in which more than a dozen activists and academicians were arrested. Most of the accused are currently out on bail. PTI AVI NP
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