Elgar case accused seeks formation of HC bench to hear his pending plea

A court here on Thursday asked jail authorities to allow activist Rona Wilson, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to send a letter to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court seeking that a bench be formed to hear his pending petition.

The hearing on the petition, which seeks that the case against him be quashed, is getting delayed for want of a bench and on some occasions high court judges have recused themselves from hearing Elgar-related pleas, as per Wilson's yet-to-be-sent letter. On Thursday, Wilson sought a direction from the special court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases here to jail authorities to forward his letter to the Chief Justice.

The court directed the superintendent of Taloja jail near Mumbai, where Wilson is lodged, that if the accused wanted to send any letter to the High Court chief justice, they should allow him to `send affirmation' which is part of the procedure.

His lawyer Neeraj Yadav had filed an application before special judge Rajesh Kateriya that Wilson may be permitted to affirm the letter addressed to the Chief Justice in the presence of affirmation officer.

Special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty said any letter or application should be sent through the jail authority, as per the procedure.

Wilson's lawyer argued that they doubted if Wilson would be allowed to send out such letters. The court then said if Wilson wanted to write to the HC, the jail superintendent shall facilitate that.

In the yet-to-be-sent letter addressed to the chief justice, Wilson said the hearing on his petition ''is continuously being delayed for want of a bench of the High Court ready and willing to hear the said matter.'' ''Almost five benches have chosen to recuse themselves from hearing petitions/applications dealing with the said offence,” it added.

Meanwhile, the lawyer of Varavara Rao, an accused in the same case who has been granted bail on medical grounds by the Supreme court, filed an application before the NIA court seeking exemption from appearance on Thursday on the ground of ill-health.

The prosecution opposed it, but the court granted Rao exemption and directed him to appear without fail on the next hearing.

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

Pune Police also claimed that the conclave had been organized by people with alleged Maoist links. Later the NIA took over the case.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)