Pune Court Dismisses Aannd Teltumbde's Plea For Anticipatory Bail

A court here rejected Friday anticipatory bail application filed by Dalit scholar Anand Teltumbde in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

Additional sessions judge Kishor Vadane observed that an investigating officer has collected sufficient material against Teltumbde.

"In my view, there is sufficient material collected by the investigating officer to show the involvement of the present accused in the alleged commission of the offence," the judge observed.

The investigation was at a crucial stage and custodial interrogation of the accused was necessary, the court held.

The prosecution Thursday had submitted an envelope containing "evidence", claiming that it proves Teltumbde's involvement in Maoist activities.

Teltumbde filed the anticipatory (pre-arrest) bail application before the Pune court after the Supreme Court rejected his plea seeking to quash the FIR against him in the Elgar Parishad case.

Prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar had argued that some of the correspondence seized by police revealed that the leaders of the banned CPI (Maoist) comrade Prakash, Milind (Teltumbde), Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen and Anand Teltumbde were in contact with each other.

"It establishes a larger conspiracy," she had said.

Gadling, Wilson and Sen are already arrested.

Defence lawyer Rohan Nahar contended that there was no evidence to show that "comrade Anand" in the alleged correspondence, to which the prosecution had referred, was Teltumbde.

But the judge, in the order, said the documents submitted by the prosecution in the envelop "prima facie" reveal that it has some material to show that they were one and the same person.

Nahar said he will challenge the order in the Bombay High Court.

According to Pune Police, Maoists had supported the Elgar Parishad conclave held here on December 31, 2017, and the inflammatory speeches there led to violent clashes at the Koregaon Bhima war memorial the next day. 

Picture Courtesy: The Indian Express