Elgar Parishad case: NIA court grants interim bail to accused Sagar Gorkhe to appear for law exam

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More than four years after he was arrested in the Elgar Parishad case, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai on Friday granted interim bail to Sagar Gorkhe to appear for his law degree exam, reported news agency PTI.

The 22-day temporary bail was granted on a PR (personal recognisance) bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of similar amount. In case Gorkhe fails to arrange for a surety, he is allowed to furnish cash bail of Rs 25,000, the court noted and imposed a set of conditions on him.

The accused is a member of the Kabir Kala Manch - an alleged front organisation of banned outfit CPI (Maoist). He was arrested in September 2020 and is currently lodged at Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai, PTI reported.

Special judge Chakor Bhaviskar granted the bail till January 4 to allow Gorkhe to appear in the first semester examination of Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree.

As per Gorkhe's plea, after clearing the pre-entrance exam, he had enrolled in a three-year LLB programme at a college under the jurisdiction of a university headquartered in Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) in Maharashtra.

Citing the "congested" and "stressful" condition in the prison, he had sought temporary relief not only to appear for the exam, but also "prepare for it without any distraction and stress".

Elgar Parishad accused to get phone for NIA to track him during his bail period

According to PTI, his petition mentioned that although the sanctioned strength of inmates in his barrack was 18, there are more than 40 prisoners lodged.

"Besides the congested nature of the barrack, the jail is not a conducive place to peacefully study and prepare for the exam," the plea stated.

The temporary bail was granted to the accused on a PR bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of similar amount. Such a bond allows releasing an accused from custody on a promise to appear as required by a court.

The special court also directed Gorkhe to furnish an active mobile cell phone number to jail authorities, NIA and the prosecution.

"He shall keep that cell phone alive, so that, if required, he may be contacted and his whereabouts can be traced," the judge stated, adding that NIA may monitor his whereabouts on the cell phone number given for the period of temporary bail only.

Apart from Gorkhe, the court also granted permission to another Elgar Parishad case accused, Mahesh Raut, to appear for viva-voice, Semester-I, entrance exam of LLB.

Gorkhe, Raut and 13 other activists and academicians were booked for allegedly making provocative speeches at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017.

The speeches triggered violence at Bhima-Koregaon, on Pune city's outskirts, the following day, the Pune Police, which was probing the case, had said.

As per the cops the conclave was backed by Maoists. Later, NIA took over the probe into the case.

(With PTI inputs)