Wilson gets bail for prayer meet after father’s demise

A special court on Tuesday granted interim bail for two weeks to activist Rona Wilson, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, to attend a family prayer in connection with his father’s demise last month in Kerala.

Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) judge Dinesh E Kothalikar directed him to furnish a bond and sureties. Wilson will be released on Sep 13 and is supposed to surrender by 6 pm on Sep 27.

Opposing his plea made through his advocate R Sathyanarayan, the NIA, on Monday, had told the court that he was ‘simply creating a ground’ for his release and pointed out that his father’s last rites were already over. It had further stated that the same can be done by his brothers or other family members. The agency had also said that he had not proved that his presence is required and that the ceremony cannot be carried out in his absence. It called his plea 'devoid of merits’ and said that the relief is not called for. The NIA had also pointed out that he was found to be an active member of the CPI (Maoist) and that the allegations against him were serious in nature. He could indulge in illicit activity or tamper with prosecution evidence.

Last year, the special court had denied Wilson’s co-accused and lawyer Surendra Gadling a temporary bail to attend his mother’s last rites. The Bombay High Court this year permitted him to attend his mother’s first anniversary ceremony in Nagpur to conduct the final rites which had been kept in abeyance.