Dr Hany Babu: The DU Professor Who Spent 5 Years in Jail Without Trial

After five years and four months in prison, the Bombay HC granted bail to Dr Hany Babu, citing "inordinate delay".

(This article has been updated from The Quint's archives. It was first published in 2020.)

“When you term someone anti-national, what is the definition of it? Is it that if you question certain things, you will become anti-national? Who defines the nation?” asked Delhi University Associate Professor Dr Hany Babu in an interview with The Caravan in November 2019.

Nearly two months before, the Pune Police in September that year had conducted a search at his Noida residence, allegedly over his connection with its probe into the Elgar Parishad case for alleged Maoist links. Nearly ten months after the search, Dr Babu was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Although Dr Babu had asserted that he had no role in organising the Elgar Parishad or in the Bhima Koregaon violence that erupted thereafter, the NIA said he had been arrested on charges of “propagating Naxal activities, Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator with other arrested accused in the Elgaar Parishad case.”