Elgar Parishad case: Dhawale, Wilson to walk out of jail next week

The Bombay high court on Wednesday granted them bail in view of their nearly six-year-long pre-trial incarceration

MUMBAI: Activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale, arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, are likely to be released from jail next week as the Bombay high court on Wednesday granted them bail in view of their nearly six-year-long pre-trial incarceration and the unlikeliness of the trial concluding anytime soon.

Rona Wilson was arrested in 2018. (Pratham Gokhale/Hindustan Times)

“They have been in jail since 2018 and even the charges in the case are yet to be framed. The prosecution has cited over 300 witnesses. Thus, there is no possibility of the trial concluding in the near future,” the division bench of justices AS Gadkari and Kamal Khata said while ordering their release on personal bonds of ₹1 lakh and 1-2 sureties of the same amount each.

Advocate Rahul Arote, who represented Wilson, welcomed the order saying since neither Wilson nor Dhawale had any other cases pending against them, they would be released from jail after completion of formalities.

“Formalities for submitting sureties and bail bonds before the trial court (special NIA court) would require 2-3 days, after which the duo will step out of Taloja jail, where they are lodged,” Arote said.

Dhawale is the founder of Republican Panthers, an anti-caste organisation. He is also a well-known poet, political commentator and publisher of the left-leaning Marathi magazine Vidrohi.

Wilson is an activist from Kerala and one of the founding members of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners.

The Elgar Parishad, a day-long programme featuring speeches, songs and plays, was organised in Pune’s Shaniwar Wada on December 31, 2017 to commemorate 200 years of the battle of Koregaon, in which a small group of Mahar soldiers under the East India Company defeated a much larger Peshwa army on January 1, 1818. A day after the event, violence broke out near the memorial to the war at Koregaon Bhima village, located around 100 km from Pune, in which one person was killed.

The Pune police and the NIA, which took over the case later, alleged that the Elgar Parishad was organised by the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and arrested 16 well-known activists and intellectuals from across the country including Telugu poet Varavara Rao, scholar Anand Teltumbde, writer Gautam Navlakha and Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, who died in jail awaiting treatment for Parkinsons and age-related ailments.

All the arrested accused have been charged with instigating violence and rioting, sedition, and attempting to overthrow the government and booked under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (UAPA).

Although seven of the 16 accused in the case have secured bail, Wednesday’s order was the first instance when the accused were granted bail on technical grounds, paving the way for bail for the remaining accused.