The Jharkhand High Court has granted bail to Prabhu Prasad Sao (alias Prabhu Sao), an alleged overground worker for the proscribed CPI(Maoist) organisation, citing his prolonged incarceration of eight and a half years without the examination of a single witness. A division bench of Justices Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Pradeep Kumar Srivastava set aside the November 2025 order of the Special NIA Judge, Ranchi, which had previously rejected Sao’s bail application. “The nature of allegations levelled against the petitioner, his period of incarceration has been since September 1, 2017, and that not a single witness has been examined by the prosecution, which furthermore reflects, considering that 51 witnesses are to be examined, that the trial is not likely to be concluded in the near future, the court said on February 27.
