Elgar Parishad case: Jyoti Jagtap files for discharge

The Elgaar Parishad was an event held on December 31, 2017, in Pune’s Shaniwar Wada to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima. It had approximately 35,000 people in attendance

Mumbai: Jyoti Jagtap, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for her purported involvement in the Elgar Parishad case, on Wednesday filed for discharge citing a lack of evidence against her.

Elgar Parishad case: Jyoti Jagtap files for discharge

The Elgaar Parishad was an event held on December 31, 2017, in Pune’s Shaniwar Wada to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima. It had approximately 35,000 people in attendance.

The NIA claimed that Jagtap, arrested in September 2021, was a member of Kabir Kala Manch, an alleged frontal organisation of banned CPI (Maoist) and propagated Naxal activities and Maoist ideology, and was a co-conspirator with other arrested accused.

The federal agency also claimed that she was allegedly raising anti-government slogans (both the Centre and then BJP-led government in Maharashtra) through songs and street plays.

The plea was filed on the day when the special NIA court was scheduled to frame charges against 17 accused in the case. The court has now asked the prosecution to submit its reply to the discharge plea. On Wednesday, some other accused in the case also expressed their desire to move discharge pleas.

In the discharge plea, filed through advocates Sharif Shaikh and Susan Abraham, Jagtap has claimed innocence and pleaded that she has been falsely implicated in the case.

She claimed that the prosecution has failed to show that Kabir Kala Manch was a frontal organisation linked to CPI(Maoist), she was a member of the group, or that she had committed any act contrary to the law.

Jagtap said that though she was named in the original FIR registered at Vishrambaug police station in Pune, she was not arrested for two and a half years.