On September 21, 2023, the Bombay Excessive Court docket granted bail to activist Mahesh Raut, an accused within the Elgaar Parishad case. A yr later, 37-year-old Raut stays in jail, with a keep granted then on his bail order by the Excessive Court docket for 3 weeks, prolonged occasionally with no efficient listening to thus far on the enchantment within the Supreme Court docket.
Raut has been behind bars since his arrest in 2018. The Excessive Court docket granted him bail in 2023 however stayed the order for 3 weeks to permit the Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) to file an enchantment.
The NIA filed an enchantment instantly and it was heard for the primary time within the SC on September 27 2023. Thus far, the case has come up for listening to within the SC 13 instances. Throughout these hearings, the court docket heard submissions on tagging of circumstances with different co-accused. Since then, activist Shoma Sen was granted bail in April and Gautam Navlakha in Might by the SC.
Members of the family and authorized representatives of Raut mentioned that the prolonged keep on his bail, now for a yr, has been an unprecedented delay in delivering justice.
“He has been in jail for the previous six years with the trial but to start. At any time when we converse to him, we really feel that this previous yr has been the hardest for him in jail. As soon as he was granted bail, he hoped to be out quickly. With the keep prolonged for such an extended time frame, it’s a feeling of limbo and delay in justice,” a member of the family of Raut, who didn’t want to be named, mentioned. Additionally they added that after grant of bail, Raut could have begun planning contributing to his household financially once more as his mom is retired.
The Pune police had arrested Raut in 2018 alleging his hyperlinks with banned organisation, CPI (Maoist). The Excessive Court docket, whereas granting bail to Raut, a former Prime Minister Rural Growth fellow, mentioned that ‘there isn’t a corroboration in any respect’ that he had acquired cash from the co-accused belonging to CPI (Maoist) or that an individual was recruited via him. A member of his authorized crew mentioned that although a keep was granted, it ought to have been determined upon as quickly as doable than being prolonged, preserving him in incarceration regardless of grant of bail now since a yr.
In June, the SC had permitted Raut to return out on interim bail for 2 weeks to attend last rituals of his grandmother. Since his return to Taloja jail in July, the keep has continued to be prolonged.
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