E-Paper
Supreme Court orders time-bound steps to frame charges against Surendra Gadling
Surendra Gadling is now the only one of the 16 accused in the case still in jail. Of these, Father Stan Swamy died in custody in 2021.
The Supreme Court has directed a trial court in Maharashtra to take time-bound steps to frame charges in the Elgar Parishad–linked Surjagarh arson case against lawyer-activist Surendra Gadling, who has been in custody for nearly seven years without trial.
The order was passed on January 21 but made public on Friday, the same day the Bombay High Court granted bail to Ramesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe, accused in the Elgar Parishad conspiracy case, on “parity”, noting that the other accused in the same case were granted bail over the years.
Gadling is now the only one of the 16 accused in the case still in jail. Of these, Father Stan Swamy died in custody in 2021.
The case stems from the Elgar Parishad event held at Pune’s Shaniwarwada to mark the 200th anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle in 1818. Violence broke out on January 1, 2018, with the police alleging Maoist involvement. One person was killed and several wereinjured.
Several lawyers, scholars and anti-caste activists were arrested by the Pune police, after which, it registered a case alleging that the violence broke out due to the inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conference organised by the activists a day before, on December 31, 2017. Gaichor and Gorkhe were arrested in September 2020, and are lodged at Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai .
In the Supreme Court, a bench of justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi took note of the prolonged delay in adjudicating Gadling’s bail plea and directed the Registrar General of the Bombay High Court to ensure that a regular presiding judge is posted within seven days to the Additional Sessions Court at Aheri, if it is presently being run by an in-charge judge due to a vacancy.
The court further directed that all records, including seized electronic evidence, pending before the special NIA court in Mumbai be safely transmitted to the Aheri court within 10 days. It also directed the trial court to allow “inspection of the material to Gadling within three weeks, frame charges within four weeks thereafter, return the records to the NIA court in safe custody,” and ensure Gadling’s appearance through “video conferencing” without hindrance.
Gadling approached the Supreme Court seeking bail, pointing out that he has been in custody since his arrest in 2019 in the Surjagarh arson case. He has also been in judicial custody since 2018 in the Elgar Parishad case, where the trial is yet to commence.
At the last hearing on January 21, senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Gadling, informed the Court that despite a December 6, 2025 trial court order directing thetransfer of original records from the NIA court in Mumbai to the trial court at Aheri, delays were inevitable as the material was also required for proceedings in Mumbai. He also pointed out that the Aheri court did not have a regularly posted presiding officer, making it impossible to frame charges or proceed with the trial, and argued that Gadling deserved bail in light of the continued procedural delays.
The Surjagarh arson case relates to an incident on December 25, 2016, when 76 vehicles transporting iron ore from the Surjagarh mines in Maharashtra were set ablaze, an act attributed by the police to members of the banned CPI (Maoist). Around 15 people were arrested in the case.
Gadling was arrested on June 6, 2018, in the Elgar Parishad case. In January 2019, the police claimed that material recovered in that investigation linked him to the Surjagarh arson, following which he was charged along with others, including poet Varavara Rao, for allegedly conspiring to disrupt mining operations. Rao was granted medical bail in both cases in 2021.
In 2022, the Gadchiroli sessions court was told by the prosecution that trial could not proceed as the original records were lying before the NIA court in Mumbai. Gadling’s bail pleas were subsequently rejected by the sessions court and the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. After the case was transferred in 2023 to a newly established sessions court at Aheri, his discharge application remained pending.
In October 2025, the Aheri court directed Gadling’s production to argue the discharge plea, noting that denying him the opportunity would compound the injustice caused by delay. On November 3, 2025, the court directed production of the original records, a direction yet to be complied with. Proceedings were further stalled after the presiding judge was transferred on December 31, 2025, with no replacement appointed so far.
