The Supreme Court today relaxed the bail conditions of tribal teacher Soni Sori and her journalist nephew Lingaram Kodopi in a case lodged against them for allegedly receiving money from Essar Group on behalf of Maoists.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur, relaxed the conditions earlier imposed by it and asked Sori and Kodopi to report to the concerned police station once in four weeks instead of once a week.
The bench, also comprising justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi, relaxed one other condition that had asked both of them to take prior permission of the trial court before leaving either the station or travelling abroad.
The court now said that they would be needing the permission only for travelling abroad.
The apex court had on February 7, 2014 while enlarging both Sori and Kodopi on bail in the case had imposed certain conditions like they shall appear before the trial court on each and every date of hearing and shall not seek exemption except when on a particular date they are unable to appear because of reasons beyond their control, like illness etc.
It had also directed them to inform the court about their place of stay/residence and disclose to the court as to when there is a change of residence.
37-year-old Sori and her activist-nephew Kodopi (26) were arrested on charges of acting as Maoist conduits who had allegedly received protection money for the rebels from Essar Group in Chhattisgarh.
According to police, Kodopi and B K Lala, a building contractor with Essar Steel Ltd, were nabbed from a weekly market at Palnar village in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on September 9, 2011, with Rs 15 lakh in cash, which was allegedly meant to be paid to Maoists.
Police had claimed that Sori was also associated with Kodopi, but had managed to flee the spot.
Sori was arrested on October 4, 2011, in New Delhi. Essar Steel Ltd General Manager D V C S Verma was also arrested in connection with the case.
A Dantewada district court had granted bail to Verma and contractor Lala.
