The Supreme Court on Friday allowed former Delhi University (DU) professor Hany Babu, who is an accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, to withdraw his bail plea citing “change of circumstance” claiming that he would be moving the Bombay high court which had granted bail to five co-accused.
A bench of justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal allowed the petition to be withdrawn as “not pressed” while recording the statement of Babu’s lawyer Payoshi Roy that he would like to pursue the matter before the high court.
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Roy said, “There is a change of circumstance. Five of the co-accused have got bail. I would like to go back to the high court and move bail afresh.”
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She requested the court to grant her liberty to approach the high court to which the bench said, “You can tell the HC there is a change in circumstance. We will not give you that liberty.”
The top court had issued notice on the petition in January this year following which responses were sought from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and state of Maharashtra.
The matter was last heard on March 3 when the NIA was granted more time to file a response.
Babu had approached the top court against an order of the Bombay high court of September 19, 2022, refusing bail in the case.
He is alleged to have been part of the conspiracy behind the Bhima Koregaon violence of 2018 in Pune in which one person was killed.
NIA claimed that Babu had links with banned terrorist outfit Communist Party of India (Maoist).
The petition filed by the former DU professor claimed he has been in jail for the past four years and there was no immediate prospect of the trial commencing in the matter.
Besides, Babu also claimed innocence as there was no evidence against him except some code names found in his laptop. The HC had discussed these arguments in detail and denied bail.
Babu is facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and in February 2022, the special NIA court had rejected his bail plea making out a prima facie case on his involvement in promoting the agenda of CPI(Maoist) outfit.
The high court order said, “The appellant (Babu) is not just a passive member but an active member and the material on record clearly shows his involvement in the larger conspiracy.” It further stated that the “appellant is not merely a sympathiser with the organisation but is given substantial responsibility, including conducting activities of the Revolutionary Democratic Front, a frontal organisation of the CPI(Maoist).”
The high court went through the investigation records submitted by NIA and said that Babu developed code structure for the outfit that was vital for secret communication and evidence was available to show his role in party building and mass mobilisation as part of the outfit’s larger objective of creating terror.
