Elgar Parishad case: Anand Teltumbde granted bail by Bombay HC

The civil rights activist had approached the high court after the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court rejected his bail plea last year

The Bombay high court on Friday granted bail to Elgar Parishad case accused Anand Teltumbde on furnishing personal bond of ₹1 lakh and one or two sureties in the same amount.

Anand Teltumbde, however, will not come out of jail soon. (HT file image)

HC held the offences made out against Teltumbde were only of being a member of a terrorist organisation, but granted him bail taking into consideration that the maximum punishment for the said offence is ten years imprisonment and he had already spent two years behind bars.

Teltumbde, however, will not come out of jail soon, as the HC has stayed the operation of its order for a week to enable the NIA to challenge the bail order in Supreme Court.

The civil rights activist had approached the high court after the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court rejected his bail plea last year.

In his appeal, Teltumbde had claimed that the agency did not have any evidence to show that he was one of the organisers of the Elgar Parishad in Pune in December 2017 wherein the allegedly provocative speeches were made which purportedly resulted in the violence at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018 and left one person dead.

Teltumbde had further claimed other purported evidence against him was recovered from the computer of co-accused Rona Wilson which was not verified according to the norms. He had submitted that as the trial would take a long time and he had already been in jail since his surrender in April 2020, he should be granted bail.

The division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice Milind Jadhav, however, held that offences under section 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) which pertained to being a member of a terrorist outfit were made out against Teltumbde.

During the arguments, senior advocate Mihir Desai had submitted that the allegations that Teltumbde was one of the organisers of the Elgar Parishad event and had given provocative speeches to promote the ideologies of the banned terror organization CPI (Maoist) at the event were untrue. Desai had submitted that Teltumbde had left Pune even before the event had commenced.

Teltumbde in his application had further submitted that in the second supplementary chargesheet, the NIA had referred to the articles and documents seized from the computer of co-accused Wilson which were allegedly about the banned CPI (M), but it had not assigned any specific role to Teltumbde or other co-accused in formulating, directing, participating, or implementing the policy of the banned organization. The bench was informed that the veracity of the seized documents from Wilson’s computer was also not proved as there was no signature that could be attributed to Teltumbde nor was it proved that the letters were penned by him.

Desai had also submitted that the claims of Teltumbde being part of a frontal organization of CPI (M) were also misconceived as the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights and the Anuradha Gandhy Memorial Committee were not banned under any law.

Advocate Sandesh Patil for NIA had argued that the chargesheet and evidence along with it clearly stated the role of Teltumbde in organising the Elgar Parishad event which was allegedly backed by the banned terrorist organization. The NIA had also submitted that Teltumbde was secretly in touch with Milind Teltumbde, his brother, who was an alleged Maoist leader and was killed in an encounter in Gadchiroli.

Patil had also submitted that Teltumbde promoted the agenda of the banned organisation in the several international conferences which he attended and made presentations.

Teltumbde was kept in Taloja jail since he surrendered in April 2020. He had applied for bail in the special court but the same was rejected last year in September. He had then been granted permission to be with his 90-year-old mother after the death of his brother earlier this year.