After spending six and half years in prison, activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale were released from Taloja jail on Friday afternoon. The duo were the first set of accused arrested on June 6, 2018 in connection with allegedly provocative speeches that were delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, triggering violence at Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district the next day.
The two were granted bail by the Bombay High Court on January 8 on the ground that there were over 300 witnesses in the case and the trial was unlikely to commence or conclude in the near future. It said that charges are not yet framed in the case.
Wilson was arrested following several raids at his residence in Delhi by the Pune police, from where the police is said to have recovered several letters exchanged allegedly between the accused reflecting their Maoist links. It was from his system, the police allegedly recovered several letters which the prosecution had cited to establish his and several other activists' links with the Maoists organisation and ideology.
They were released from the Taloja jail at around 1.30pm after completion of bail formalities before the special NIA court, presiding over the case. They were welcomed by the close family and well-wishers outside the prison.
Apart from Dhawale and Wilson, eight of the 14 arrested activists were arrested in the case, have been granted bail, they include - Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Shoma Sen, Gautam Navlakha and Mahesh Raut.
Meanwhile, Raut though have been granted bail but remains in prison as his bail order has been challenged before the Apex court.
