No hesitation to prima facie conclude that applicant was actively involved in activities of banned organisation: court in bail rejection order of Elgar Parishad accused

A special court that last week denied bail to Delhi University’s associate professor Hany Babu, an accused in the Elgar Parishad - Bhima Koregaon case, has said in its detailed order that if material on record is taken into consideration, there would be no hesitation to prima facie conclude that he was actively involved in activities of the banned organisation.

The special court under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act took into consideration two witness statements and a letter purportedly written by Babu’s co-accused Surendra Gadling to one Prakash while making his observation. The witnesses had stated about Babu’s involvement in the Committee for Release of Political Prisoners and being the convener of the Committee for the release of GN Saibaba, a professor convicted by a Gadchiroli sessions court for Maoist links.

The court mentioned the contents of another letter allegedly addressed by co-accused Rona Wilson to Prakash. It said its contents speak about ending Modi-Raj and about thinking of going for another incident like the death of Rajiv Gandhi. The order stated that if these allegations are taken in proper perspective, then there will be no hesitation to prima facie conclude that there is a prima facie case against the applicants that they have done act with intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of India and with intent to strike terror in a section of the people of India.

The professor had claimed in his bail application that there is no material to show that he had supported cessation or caused disaffection against the country and hence the offences he is booked for under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) are not made out.

The NIA had opposed his plea and told the court that he was an active member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), was in contact with co-accused and was assigned for urban activities of the organisation. It also called the Committee for Defence and Release of GN Saibaba a frontal organisation of CPI (Maoist), of which he was a part and collected funds for the release of the convicted professor.