Bhima Koregaon riots: Bombay High Court grants bail to Mahesh Raut; sixth accused to get bail

The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Mahesh Raut, one of the accused persons in the Bhima Koregaon riots case of 2018..A division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Sharmila Deshmukh passed the order.The Court stayed its order for a week after the National Investigation Authority (NIA) sought time to file appeal against the same before the Supreme Court. Raut is the sixth person to get bail in the Bhima Koregaon case after Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.Of the above, Rao was granted bail on medical grounds. Another accused Gautam Navlakha is placed under house arrest instead of being lodged in jail after a Supreme Court order to that effect. .Raut was arrested in June 2018 and has been in custody since. He approached the High Court after a special NIA court rejected his bail plea in November 2021.He claimed to be a forest rights activist and a former fellow of the prestigious Prime Minister’s Rural Development Programme and worked with the Gadchiroli Collector.It was further highlighted that he had graduated from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in 2011 after which he did a fellowship on conflict zones..Senior Advocate Mihir Desai and Advocate Vijay Hiremath who appeared for Raut prayed that the Raut be granted bail on the grounds of parity with co-accused Anand Teltumbde, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves.They also argued that Raut had spent over 5 years in custody and deserved to be released since the trial was yet to begin. Raut’s advocates also contended that the evidence against him primarily consisted of documents recovered from the computer of co-accused Rona Wilson and not from Raut. The documents were also never allegedly signed by Raut..Additional Solicitor General Devang Vyas with Advocate Sandesh Patil for the NIA opposed Raut’s bail on the ground that acts allegedly committed by Raut were against the society. NIA alleged that Raut recruited young students from colleges into the Communist Party of India (Maoist).They argued that it was not justiciable for Raut, accused under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), to seek bail on constitutional grounds when his acts are against the interests of the State and society and the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of India.The counsel also relied upon evidence which allegedly showed that the Communist Party of India (Maoist) had given Raut ₹5 lakh along with co-accused Surendra Gadling and Sudhir Dhawale..The Court observed that merely because a co-accused has claimed that he handed over money to Raut, would not make Raut a recipient of the same as there was nothing else to corroborate the claim. The Court also noted that there was no evidence of any person having allegedly joined the organisation or recruited at the behest of Raut. Hence, it did not agree with NIA's contentions. The court also concluded that no covert or over-terrorist act had been attributed to Raut and hence offences under the UAPA concerning terrorist acts seemed prima facie not true. "After taking into consideration the totality of entire material and evidence on record against Raut, this Court is of the view that at the most it can be said that Raut is a member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and therefore it would attract provisions of Sections 13 and 38 of UAP Act. According to us, there is no material on record to indicate that, there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusations against the Appellant under Sections 16, 17, 18, 20 and 39 of UAPA are prima facie true," the order stated while granting bail to Raut. .[Read Order].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.