Hany Babu Gets Bail After Five Years and Four Months in Jail Without Trial

Mumbai: The Bombay high court today called the five-year-and-four-month-long incarceration without trial of Hany Babu an “inordinate delay” and granted bail to the Delhi university associate professor who had been arrested in the Elgar Parishad case.

The bail application moved early this year was kept for orders after the arguments were concluded on October 3. A division bench of Justices Ajey S Gadkari and Ranjitsinha R Bhonsale pronounced the verdict today, December 4. 

Soon after the court granted him bail, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which is handling the case sought a stay on the order to be able to appeal against it before the Supreme Court. The Bombay high court rejected it. “The applicant has already spent over five years in jail,” the court noted. 

Babu’s bail was granted against a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh along with sureties of the same amount. 

Babu’s lawyer Yug Mohit Chaudhry, while arguing the bail application, had pointed to the bail order of his co-defenders Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale. The court on January 8 this year, while granting them a bail, had had directed the trial court to complete the trial within nine months. There has been no development on that front so far. 

Opposing Babu's bail for the NIA, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh and advocate Chintan Shah argued that Babu’s incarceration period was shorter than other co-accused. Babu, who was arrested on July 28, 2020, has since been lodged at the Taloja central jail in Mumbai's suburbs. While in jail, Babu fell ill several times and had to be hospitalised during COVID-19 pandemic after he developed a severe eye infection.

Babu, who also has a law degree, has produced several critical and academic writings even from jail. A few of his writings were published in The Wire. 

Babu’s wife, Jenny Rowena, also an academic in Delhi University and who has been shuttling between Delhi and Mumbai ever since his arrest said she is at a loss of words. “We have waited for so long for his release and now that it is finally happening, I can’t stop weeping,” she told The Wire over the phone. 

Before this bail application, Babu’s lawyer had moved several applications, including an application for his discharge from the case. 

In May this year, ASG Singh and Shah had opposed Babu’s plea, stating that his appeal, filed in 2024 after a delay of over two years, challenging the trial court’s bail rejection order from February 2022, was not maintainable. Singh argued that the trial court’s order was challenged before the HC by Babu, and a coordinate bench dismissed it in September 2022. 

The Supreme Court, in May last year, dismissed his appeal as he had not pursued it further. Singh added that the apex court had not interfered in the HC’s order; therefore, he should have filed a fresh application before the trial court. To his, his defence lawyer Chaudhry had told the court that he would delete his prayer challenging the February 2022 trial court order, and the HC may consider his plea as a regular bail application on the grounds of inordinate delay in conducting the trial. Today’s order was on the grounds of delay in the trial and not on merits of the case. 

The Elgar Parishad case registered in 2018, has so far seen 16 arrests. Of them, Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old priest and tribal rights activist based in Jharkhand, passed away in custody in July 2021. His lawyer and supporters have blamed prison officials of medical negligence. 

Among others arrested were prominent lawyers, activists and academics, who, the state police and later the NIA has claimed to be members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

A total of 10 accused, including Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Shoma Sen, Gautam Navlakha, Sudhir Dhawale, and Rona Wilson, have been given bail and released. Last month, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Jyoti Jagtap. Accused Mahesh Raut was also released on six-week medical bail by the Supreme Court, which was later extended. Lawyer Surendra Gadling and cultural artists and activists Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor are yet to get regular bail.

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