MUMBAI, May 18 -- The Bombay High Court recently questioned the maintainability of a fresh bail plea filed on June 10, 2024, by former Delhi University professor Hany Babu, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. Babu had challenged both a 2022 National Investigation Agency (NIA) court order denying him bail and a Bombay High Court judgment that upheld that denial. Babu, a professor of English literature, was arrested on July 28, 2020, and remains in Taloja Jail. He is accused of being a co-conspirator in the Elgar Parishad case, where provocative speeches allegedly delivered on December 31, 2017, reportedly led to violence near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial the following day, resulting in one death and several injuries. Additional Solicitor-General Anil Singh, representing the NIA, raised preliminary objections, citing a delay of over two years and four months since the NIA court rejected Babu's bail plea on February 14, 2022. After the Bombay High Court dismissed his appeal in September 2022, Babu approached the Supreme Court with a Special Leave to Appeal Petition in 2024, but withdrew it on May 3, 2024, citing a "change of circumstance." He stated he would seek relief from the High Court, which had since granted bail to five co-accused. The NIA argued that the Supreme Court had not granted Babu liberty to file a fresh appeal, but had merely allowed him to withdraw the SLP based on his statement. The agency maintained that Babu should have approached the trial court with a new bail application rather than filing the current appeal, as no fresh trial court order existed to contest. Babu's lawyer, Dr Yug Mohit Chaudhry, said the objection about maintainability had been raised for the first time and that Babu was willing to amend the petition. He proposed dropping the challenge to the 2022 order and instead focusing on the prolonged delay in trial. He noted that since the 2022 judgment, eight co-accused had been granted bail. The bench of justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata advised Babu to seek clarification from the Supreme Court and granted him liberty to file a fresh bail plea before the trial court based on prolonged incarceration. The matter will next be heard on July 7....