In his bail application, Babu, 54, who has been in custody for the last two year, has challenged the orders of the special court.
The special court had denied him bail stating that there was sufficient material on record to prosecute him. It had also recorded a finding that he was an active member of the committee formed for organising the legal defence for GNN Sai Baba, an alleged member of the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit.
However, Babu has claimed that the special court didn’t appreciate the material on record.
The bail plea stated the prosecution has wrongly invoked various charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He further claimed that even if the contents of the FIR lodged against him are taken at their face value, only the offence of supporting a terrorist outfit (sections 38 and 39 of the UAPA) was made out, which provide a sentence of maximum 10 years in jail.
The DU professor further claimed that the prosecution in the case hasn’t booked him for either funding, raising funds for the outfit or even for procuring weapons or participating in the alleged terrorist activities of the CPI(Maoist).
It was further highlighted that he has already spent two years in prison and that the trial isn’t likely to commence soon and that there are over 50 witnesses in the case to be examined during the trial.
The chargesheet in the case runs into over 13,000 pages, the plea pointed out.
Source: Barandbench
