Will rely on ‘historic’ verdict to secure release of Elgar Parishad case accused: Lawyer

Nagpur: After securing acquittal for Prof GN Saibaba and four others primarily based on absence of sanction under UAPA’s Section 45 (1), his lawyers now have plan to rely on the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court’s verdict for securing the release of several accused who are also behind bars in the Elgar Parishad case.
In the Elgar case registered in 2018, several leading lawyers, activists and scholars were slapped with charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967. The jailed include advocate Surendra Gadling, who used to practice at the Nagpur bench, and former Nagpur University English Department head professor Shoma Sen.
Others who are facing trial in the Elgar case include Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut, poet P Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha, dalit activist Anand Teltumbde, Hany Babu, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap, among others. Father Stan Swamy, another accused, expired in July last year while still in jail.
Hailing the HC decision, Akash Sorte, who was among the battery of lawyers defending Saibaba and the other accused, said Friday’s judgment was “historic” and they would rely on it for securing the release of the Elgar Parishad case accused who too “are facing the same charges''. “The seizure of electronic material and gadgets in the Elgar case is similar to Saibaba’s case which failed to stand the scrutiny. We are confident of getting justice from the high court,” he said.
All the accused were arrested on the charge of links with the banned CPI (Maoist), which, according to the Pune police, had funded and supported the Elgar Parishad at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017. It is the police's case that provocative speeches made at the Parishad contributed to the violence at Koregaon Bhima near Pune on January 1, 2018 in which one person lost his life and several others were left injured. Most of the accused have been lodged in Mumbai’s Taloja jail.
The lawyers and relatives of these accused had been raising the violation of human rights with the police and the judiciary.