The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Delhi University professor Hany Babu, who had been arrested in 2020 in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case. The decision was made by a division bench of Justice A.S. Gadkari and Justice Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale.
Babu will be released after depositing a bail bond of ₹1 lakh along with sureties. The detailed order is awaited.
Babu was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in July 2020 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for alleged Maoist links and involvement in a conspiracy to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Earlier, both the trial court and the Bombay High Court had rejected his bail plea in 2022. He subsequently approached the Supreme Court, which in July 2024 allowed him to seek bail before either the trial court or the high court.
Babu cited that he had spent over five years and two months in prison without trial, with delays in proceedings at the special court. He was also accused of supporting G.N. Saibaba, an academic sentenced to life imprisonment for alleged Maoist connections; Saibaba was acquitted by the Bombay High Court in October 2022 and passed away two years later.
During the hearing, additional solicitor general Anil Singh argued that Babu had not spent as long in prison as other accused like Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawade, and therefore bail should not be granted solely on that basis. Babu’s counsel, Yug Mohit Chaudhary, countered that the long delay in trial justified the grant of bail.
