Lawyer Surendra Gadling was released from Taloja Central Jail on Friday morning after the Bombay High Court last month allowed him temporary bail to attend rituals on his mother’s first death anniversary. Gadling was arrested on June 6, 2018, by the Pune police in the Elgar Parishad case. His mother had passed away on August 15 last year and his plea at the time for release on temporary bail to perform the last rites was rejected by a special court.
Gadling filed an appeal before the Bombay High Court which was opposed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) stating that considering the seriousness of the offence, his plea should not be allowed.
The High Court said that Gadling can be released on temporary bail with effect from August 13 to August 21 “purely on humanitarian grounds”. It has put various conditions including that he will mark his presence before the police station in whose jurisdiction he resides in Nagpur.
“From the perusal of the impugned order, it does not appear that the NIA court approached the issue from the perspective of humanitarian consideration. In our view, the NIA court misdirected itself in importing the considerations which bear upon grant of regular bail to a prayer for release on humanitarian ground,” the High Court had said in its order on July 30.
This article first appeared in indianexpress.com