The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said poet Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad-Maoist links case who is on interim bail, need not surrender before the Taloja prison authorities until November 18. The court adjourned the hearing on a plea filed by him to next month.
Rao, 82, had been granted interim bail for six months on medical grounds by the HC on February 22 this year. He was scheduled to surrender and return to judicial custody on September 5.
However, Mr. Rao filed an application last month through his lawyer R. Sathyanarayanan and senior counsel Anand Grover, seeking extension of the bail period. He also sought HC permission to stay in his hometown of Hyderabad while out on bail.
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However, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the case, opposed Mr. Rao’s plea for extension of medical bail and shifting to Hyderabad, saying the octogenarian poet-activist’s medical reports do not indicate that he suffers from any serious ailment.