Elgar accused Hany Babu gets 4-day bail for cataract surgery

The Bombay high court on Friday granted temporary bail of four days to former Delhi University professor Hany Babu, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to undergo cataract surgery and a medical check-up at a city-based hospital.

Babu, who has been lodged in Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai since almost the last two years, had moved the high court earlier this month seeking temporary bail on health grounds.

The activist, in his petition, had said that he needed bail for three months for undergoing a cataract surgery and getting treatment for upper abdominal pain and osteoarthritis at the private Breach Candy Hospital here.

A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and P D Naik, after hearing the arguments of both sides, allowed Babu to undergo treatment at the hospital in Mumbai for four days.

The court directed that Babu be taken to a hospital for the surgery and health check-up on December 20 and be brought back to the prison on December 24, his lawyer Yug Chaudhry said.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial.

The Pune police, (who probed the case before it was transferred to the National Investigation Agency) claimed that the conclave had been backed by Maoists.