Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the interim protection to 83-year old Telugu poet P Varavara Rao in the Bhima Koregaon case and fixed hearing on his plea for a permanent medical bail the next Tuesday.
He has challenged the Bombay High Court's rejection of extension of his bail plea on April 13 despite his age and precarious health condition, pleading that "Any further incarceration would ring the death knell for him as advancing age and deteriorating health are a fatal combination."
He is currently on bail on medical grounds and he was to surrender on Tuesday.
At the joint request made by the counsel appearing for the parties, this matter be posted as first item on July 19, a bench headed by Justice U.U. Lalit said.
"The interim protection enjoyed by the petitioner shall continue... Till further orders," said the Bench, which also comprised Justices SR Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia.
Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Rao, sought extension of the interim protection till July 19. The Bench agreed, saying, "If for some reason or the other, the matter is not taken up on Thursday as fixed, we do not want a situation where the man is picked up."
The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.
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