Won’t Direct HC to Consider Hany Babu’s Bail in Bhima Koregaon case, Supreme Court says

The Supreme Court of India has told Bhima Koregaon accused Hany Babu that it could not direct the High Court to consider his bail application in the Bhima Koregaon case.

Babu has been asked by the Supreme Court to approach the High Court or the trial court with his bail application, as his plea for clarification was dismissed by the Supreme Court. After Babu had withdrawn his bail application last year, he approached the High Court, but High Court said that his withdrawal did not grant him liberty to approach the High Court.

A bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and PB Varale dismissed Babu's plea for clarification saying that he court file for revival of his petition before the High Court.

In May last year, Hany Babu, an accused in the Bhima Koregoan case withdrew his bail application filed before Supreme Court of India citing change of circumstances. Babu's counsel had told a bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal that he would be approaching the Bombay High Court with a fresh application. While allowing the petition to be withdrawn, court had refused to grant a leave to approach the High Court.

Babu had approached the top court by a special leave petition challenging the Bombay High Court's September 2022 order rejecting his bail plea. Court was told today that Babu was 57-year-old and a reputed professor of Delhi University.

High Court's division bench of Justice N.R Borkar and Justice Nitin Jamdar while rejecting the bail application by Hany Babu, against the order of a Special Judge stated, that the appellant was assigned to do all future tasks of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF). The court further noted appellant’s deep involvement in the activities of the RDF and the CPI (Maoist), and that his role cannot be seen only as an academician trying to help a colleague for release from custody.

The court further took note of the investigation and stated that the communication between the appellant with the co-accused and wanted accused showed that the appellant was in continuous contact with them. The communication between them was, “To comrades proposing to take concrete steps to end the ‘Modi -Raj’. It is stated that ‘we’ are thinking along the lines of another ‘Rajiv Gandhi-type incident’, and targeting ‘his’ road shows could be an effective strategy”.

Further, the court rejected the bail, stating that the appellant was an expert in setting up appointments and developing a code structure that was vital for secret communication.

The Special NIA court on February 15, 2022 had rejected the bail plea of Babu and four others. Special NIA Judge DE Kothalikar had rejected the bail applications of Hany Babu and Kabir Kala Manch members Sagar Gorkhe, Jyoti Jagtap and Ramesh Gaichor, holding that there is prima facie evidence to show he “was actively involved in the activities of the banned organisation CPI(Maoist) and furthering its ideology".

Babu is accused of waging war and attempting to wage war against the Government of India, tampering and disappearing the evidence, criminal conspiracy, and promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, and language under the Indian Penal Code. Further, he is also accused of committing unlawful activities, terrorist acts, conspiring and organizing terrorist camps, and recruiting members to commit a terrorist act under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Case Title: Hany Babu vs. NIA