Varavara Rao's bail hearing in the Bhima Koregaon case is on July 26

In the Bhima Koregaon case, the Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the temporary protection to 83-year-old Telugu poet P Varavara Rao and set the next Tuesday's hearing for his request for permanent medical bail. Despite his advanced age and precarious health, he has appealed the Bombay High Court's April 13 denial of his request for an extension of bail, arguing that "Any further incarceration would ring the death knell for him as advancing age and deteriorating health are a fatal combination."

He was supposed to turn himself in on Tuesday but is currently out on medical bail.

 

On July 19, a bench presided over by Justice U.U. Lalit ordered that this matter be listed as the first item. This request was made jointly by the attorneys representing the parties. The Bench, which also included Justices SR Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia, declared that "the interim protection enjoyed by the petitioner shall continue... Until further orders."

 

Rao's senior attorney, Anand Grover, requested an extension of the temporary protection until July 19. The Bench concurred, declaring, "We do not want a situation where the man is picked up if for some reason or another the matter is not taken up on Thursday as fixed." The case allegedly stems from inflammatory remarks made at the Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, according to the police, led to unrest the following day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial outside the western Maharashtra city.

 

 

Image Courtesy: Twitter @Deccan_Cable