Political Prisoner Varavara Rao’s Plea For Permanent Medical Bail Will Be Heard By Supreme Court On Tuesday

New Delhi, July 11, 2022: The Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear on Tuesday a plea filed by Telugu poet and political prisoner Varavara Rao, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, challenging the Bombay High Court order rejecting his petition for permanent medical bail in the matter.

A bench headed by Justice UU Lalit posted it for hearing on Tuesday after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta requested that he be allowed to place on record a compilation of documents and the matter be heard tomorrow.

“Allow me to place it on record and have it tomorrow. His interim protection is till tomorrow,” Mehta told the bench, also comprising Justices SR Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia.

Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Rao, said he has no objection to this.

“Can it be taken up today? I am ready, my friend is ready. We can finish it today,” Grover said.

The bench said it would take up the matter as item number one on July 12.

In his plea filed through advocate Nupur Kumar against the April 13 order of the high court, Rao has said, “The petitioner is an 83-year-old renowned Telugu poet and orator, who has undergone over two years of incarceration as an under-trial, and is currently enlarged on bail on medical grounds by the Bombay High Court, respectfully submits that any further incarceration would ring the death knell for him as an advancing age and deteriorating health are a fatal combination”.

The plea said Rao has challenged the high court order as he was not granted an extension of bail despite his advanced age and precarious health condition, and his request to shift to Hyderabad was also denied.

Rao was arrested on August 28, 2018 from his Hyderabad residence and is an under-trial in the Bhima Koregaon case for which an FIR was lodged by the Pune police on January 8, 2018 under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The case pertains to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, the police claimed, triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.

Source : https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/bhima-koregaon-case-supreme-court-to-hear-varavara-raos-plea-for-permanent-medical-bail-on-tuesday-411447