Bhima Koregaon case: Supreme Court seeks NIA response to bail plea by Professor Hany Babu

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the response of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to a bail plea filed by professor Hany Babu in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case [Hany Babu vs National Investigation Agency and anr]..A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Karol issued notice to the central agency, returnable in three weeks..The bench was hearing the plea for regular bail by the Delhi University professor.The Bombay High Court had rejected his bail plea in September 2023, leading to the instant appeal before the Supreme Court.The High Court had observed that the offences alleged were serious, and that evidence shows that the professor "was an expert in setting up appointments and developing code structure which was vital for secret communication."Further, he was involved in "mass mobilisation, party building and analysis of the cities in the context of a larger objective of the CPI (Maoist) a terrorist organisation," the High Court had added, while rejecting the bail plea.A Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court had earlier rejected his bail application after which he had moved the High Court..Babu was arrested in July 2020 on charges of being a member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and being involved in conspiracy to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Babu had claimed before the High Court that the letters cited by NIA, purportedly mentioning a conspiracy to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi, did not incriminate him.The NIA’s claim was that the letter was found on Babu’s computer while Babu’s contention was that the letter was neither written by him nor addressed to him nor did it mention of his role in the conspiracy.He has also asserted that the special judge had erred in relying upon the letter as a prima facie evidence to incriminate him. He added that there was nothing to substantiate the charge that he had made incriminating speeches.He also argued, in his earlier bail pleas, that the trial in the case was yet to commence and would take time to conclude as the NIA planned to examine over 200 witnesses for evidence running into more than 30,000 pages..Babu's plea before the top court was filed through advocate Vairawan AS.