Bhima Koregaon| Supreme Court refuses Varavara Rao's plea to leave Mumbai

The Supreme Court today refused a plea moved by Bhima Koregaon case accused Pendyala Varavara Rao seeking to modify one of his bail conditions.

Rao, accused Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, is required to seek prior permission from the Trial Court if he wishes to leave the Greater Mumbai area.

Senior Advocate Anand Grover submitted before court today that Rao's health is deteriorating, Court was further told that his wife used to take care of him but she has now shifted to Hyderabad, and there is no one to look after him.

A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi to this said, "Government will take care of him", and asked Rao to approach the trial court.

Notably, in 2022 Supreme Court had granted permanent medical bail to the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case accused 

A bench of Justice UU Lalit, Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia passed the order on the plea filed by Rao challenging a Bombay High Court order of April this year rejecting his prayer for permanent medical bail. The supreme court's  bench while allowing Rao on bail, noted that: "The appellant is 82 years; He is in custody for more than 2 and a half years; Some of the accused are not apprehended, and the trial has not commenced; The medical condition of the appellant has not improved to such an extent over the period of time that the leave be withdrawn; The appellant is entitled to be released on bail. We delete the condition limiting the relief in terms of time."

The High Court had granted Rao three months' time to surrender before the Taloja prison authorities to enable him to undergo cataract surgery.

Rao was arrested on August 28, 2018 from Hyderabad and is an under-trial in the Bhima Koregaon case for which an FIR was lodged against him by the Pune police at the Vishrambagh police station on January 8, 2018 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

His arrest was made for his alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune in December 2017. According to the police, his speech triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of Pune. The Pune police had also claimed that the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links. Later, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe in the matter.

In the instant case, allegations made out in terms of the draft before Courts include CPI (Maoist) members recruited students from JNU and TISS for terrorist activities and encouraged them for membership of banned organizations CPI (Maoist).

Rao is alleged to be an active member of Banned Terrorist Organisations under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention), Act, 1967 such as the CPI (Maoist) and its frontal organisations whose main objective is to establish "Jantana Sarkar", i.e. people's government via armed revolution and seize power from state.

Case Title: P. VARAVARA RAO Vs. NATIONAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY AND ANR.

Hearing Date: September 19, 2025

Bench: Justices Maheshwari and Bishnoi