New Delhi, Jan 3 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Maharashtra Government on a plea filed by Delhi University’s Professor Hany Babu against an order of the Bombay High Court denying him bail in connection with the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.

A Bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Karol of the apex court sought a response from the state government and the central anti-terror agency within a period of three weeks.

In September 2022, a Bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and NR Borkar of the Bombay High Court refused to interfere with the judgment of Greater Mumbai’s Special Court rejecting the bail application filed by Babu – an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Delhi University and a resident of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh.

The High Court said, “We find that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusations of the NIA against the Appellant having conspired, attempted, advocated and abetted the commission of a terrorist act/s and the act/s of preparatory to the commission of a terrorist act, are prima facie true.”

The case pertains to organisation of the Elgar Parishad at Pune, Maharashtra on December 12, 2017 which promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence resulting in loss of life and property and state-wide agitation in Maharashtra.

In its investigation, the NIA revealed that Babu was allegedly in contact with Paikhomba Meitei, Secretary Information and Publicity, Military Affairs, Kangleipak Communist Party (MC), an organisation banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and was propagating Maoist activities and Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator with other accused.