Bombay High Court on Monday rejected the bail plea filed by Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu, an accused in the 2017 Elgar Parishad case, noting prima facie allegations against him were true and that he was an active and prominent member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

A division bench of Justices N.M. Jamdar and N.R. Borkar said the appeal filed by 54-year-old Babu, arrested in July 2020 in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, against the special court order refusing him bail was dismissed.

“...we find that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusations against the appellant are prima facie true,” the judgment said.

“The documents submitted by the NIA and the facts unearthed during the investigation, based on which we must proceed at this stage, show that the appellant (Babu) is an active and prominent member of the CPI (Maoist) Party,” the court said.

The court, while referring to communication between the accused persons, referred to comrades proposing to take concrete steps to end the “Modi Raj”. It is stated that “we” are thinking along the lines of another “Rajiv Gandhi-type incident”, and targeting “his” roadshows could be an effective strategy.

“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 court said.

It added the CPI (Maoist) party was designated as a terrorist organisation and was working to establish a people’s government through violent means in an armed struggle. It wants to undermine and seize power from the State, the court said.

“The appellant, along with other accused, are working for different mass organisations to further the activities of the CPI (Maoist) party. The CPI (Maoist) party has chalked out a detailed strategy for the furtherance of its role to overthrow the lawful Government, and the same strategy and tactics are adopted by the accused and the appellant,” the order said.

The objective of this outfit was to overthrow the government by the use of weapons and mobilise armed unrest, the court observed.

The high court added that the 2017 Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune was used to establish underground contact with the banned CPI (Maoist) through its activists working in Delhi, including Babu.