The Supreme Court will be hearing the medical bail plea of Bhima-Koregaon case accused Varavara Rao for permanent medical bail tomorrow.
A three-judge bench of Justices U U Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia is most likely to hear the case pertaining to granting of the medical bail to the poet Varavara Rao.
Few days back the vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala had heard a request made by senior advocate Anand Grover on behalf of the former professor and a poet, asking for an urgent hearing in this case. Advocate Grover had pointed out that Rao’s interim bail, granted by the Bombay high court in April, would come to an ends on July 13.
“He is 83 years old. There is some urgency. Please, hear this immediately on reopening of the court,”
The Bombay High Court had rejected the plea of Rao for permanent medical bail and permission for shifting to Hyderabad in Telangana citing ill health and high expenses in Mumbai on April 13. The court had however extended the interim bail, earlier granted to Rao in February, by another three months.
In his application Rao had submitted about his condition getting worse due to Parkinson’s disease. The plea said that he had already spent over two-and-a-half years in custody as an undertrial, his plea maintained, he deserved to be released on permanent medical bail.
Rao had requested that at this stage if he lives with his family in Hyderabad,he would have access to good and free medical facilities (the treatment is free for former government employees).
Although his request was rejected by the court for permanent medical bail, the High Court Even gave directions to the Taloja central prison to improve the facilities.
Varavara Rao is among the activists, lawyers, poets and scholars who were arrested by the NIA in connection with the Elgar Parishad case.
The case is that of an inflammatory speech made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, as per the police triggered violence the very next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.