Published 15:46 IST, April 14th 2020
Activist and academician Anand Teltumbde surrenders before NIA in Elgar Parishad case
On Tuesday, activist and academician Anand Teltumbde surrendered before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Bhima Koregaon- Elgar Parishad case.
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On Tuesday, activist and academician Anand Teltumbde surrendered before the National Investigation Agency in the Bhima Koregaon- Elgar Parishad case. This development comes after the apex court granted him and Gautam Navlakha a week's time to surrender. He was accompanied to the NIA office at Cumballa Hill in South Mumbai by his wife Rama Teltumbde and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar. He is expected to be produced before a sessions court by evening.
The charges against Teltumbde
Violence had erupted at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district on January 1, 2018, where supporters had gathered to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. This resulted in the death of one person and leaving several injured. Subsequently, the Pune police arrested activists such as Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, and Vernon Gonsalves, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale and P Varavara Rao for allegedly inciting the Bhima Koregoan violence through their speech at the Elgar Parishad meeting on December 31, 2017.
Teltumbde, a professor at the Goa Institute of Management has been accused of organizing the Elgar Parishad event. Some of the other charges against him include 'conspiracy to assassinate PM Narendra Modi', 'overthrow the government', 'waging war against the Government of India' under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Also, it has been alleged that he has links with Maoists. In January 2020, the case was transferred to the NIA.
The legal battle
In 2019, a Pune sessions court rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Teltumbde and Navlakha. They later approached the Bombay High Court which gave them interim protection from arrest while their petitions were being heard. However, after the Bombay HC refused to give any relief, they moved the apex court.
On March 9, the SC directed them to surrender within three weeks. This was extended by another week. During the final hearing, the counsel for the activists had argued that going to jail amid the COVID-19 crisis was akin to a death sentence. But the SC bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee stated that the activists would not be granted further time beyond April 14 to surrender.
Teltumbde pens open letter
On Monday, Teltumbde wrote an open letter to the people of the country before surrendering to the NIA. Explaining the sequence of events, he claimed that he was implicated on the basis of 5 letters among the 13 that the police reportedly recovered from the house of two arrestees in the case. He stressed that no incriminating material had been recovered from him. Maintaining that he had never supported violence or any subversive movement in any of his writings or interviews, Teltumbde opined that "selfless servers of people" had become traitors in the country. Moreover, he alleged that the role of RSS in the entire case was "not hidden".
15:46 IST, April 14th 2020