The Bombay High Court on Friday, 18 November, granted bail to activist and scholar Anand Teltumbde, who has been in jail since April 2020 in connection with the Elgar Parishad case.
However, the National Investigation agency (NIA) requested that the operation of the High Court's order be stayed for it to be able to approach the Supreme Court.
The High Court gave a go-ahead to the NIA's request and stayed the operation of the bail order for a week.
After the NIA requested a stay on the operation of its order to approach the Supreme Court, the high court stayed the same for a week.
The 72-year-old is the third accused who was granted bail in the case by the Bombay High Court, after co-accused Varavara Rao and Sudha Bharadwaj.
A bench of Justices Ajey S Gadkari and Milind N Jadhav had reserved the verdict on 11 November. According to the court's directions, Teltumbde is to be released on bail after furnishing a surety of Rs 1 lakh.
A special NIA court had rejected his bail plea last year; Teltumbde, challenging the rejection, had then approached the High Court. He had claimed that neither was he present at the Elgar Parishad event on 31 December 2017, nor did he make any provocative speeches.
He had further argued that the NIA had misatrributed him as a terrorist under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), even though there were no charges of direct violence against him.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)