The Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail to the Elgaar Parishad case accused Surendra Gadling, the only accused remaining in jail in the case. However, he is likely to remain in custody at Taloja Central prison, as he has not got bail in the 2016 Surajgarh arson case and his plea is pending in the Supreme Court.

A division bench of Justices Ajey S Gadkari and Kamal R Khata granted bail to Gadling on the grounds of his long incarceration of over seven years and parity with the other accused. He was booked for various offences, including those under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Fourteen of the 16 accused arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case are already out of jail. One of the accused, Father Stan Swamy, died in custody in 2021.

Nine of the accused—Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Shoma Sen, Gautam Navlakha, Sudhir Dhawale, and Rona Wilson—were released on bail. In December last year, the high court granted bail to another accused in the case, Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu, leading to his release.

In November last year, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Jyoti Jagtap. Accused Mahesh Raut was released on six-week medical bail granted by the Supreme Court, which was later extended.

In January this year, the high court granted bail to Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, members of the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch, in the Elgaar Parishad case.

Only Gadling remained to get bail then. He was also accused in connection with a 2016 incident in which armed cadres of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) allegedly torched vehicles at the Surjagarh mine in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli.

One year after his 2019 arrest by the Pune police in the Elgar Parishad case, Gadling was picked up in the 2016 arson case from Gadchiroli.

Authorities claimed he conspired to torch 76 iron ore transport vehicles from local mines. While his co-accused in the Surjagarh case secured bail the same year, Gadling’s plea for the relief remains pending before the Supreme Court.

While the trial in the Elgaar Parishad case is yet to start, the court has framed charges against Gadling in the arson case.

Additional Solicitor-General Anil Singh and Special Public Prosecutor Chintan Shah opposed the bail plea and said Gadling had antecedents as he was the key accused in the arson case.

However, the high court stated that the trial was unlikely to be completed in the near future.