Elgar Parishad case: NIA court refuses Teltumbde’s request to travel for Kochi literary festival

Teltumbde was arrested by the NIA in April 2020 for alleged involvement in the Elgaar Parishad event in Pune on December 31, 2017, which investigators claim fuelled caste violence near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial the following day

MUMBAI: A special court constituted under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday rejected a plea by scholar and human rights activist Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad–Bhima Koregaon case, seeking permission to travel to Kochi later this week for an academic engagement.

Mumbai, India - February 5, 2019: Anand Teltumbde during event at Press Club in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, February 5, 2019. (Photo by Kunal Patil/Hindustan Times) (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

Teltumbde, who is currently out on bail, had sought leave to visit Kochi between November 28 and 30 to speak at a literature and arts festival organised by Malayala Manorama. The NIA opposed the application, telling the court in a handwritten note that he was “in habit of seeking permission to proceed out of Mumbai” and that the request had been filed “at the eleventh hour”.

Special Judge Chakor S Baviskar refused the plea, citing the Bombay High Court’s November 2022 order granting bail but restricting Teltumbde from leaving the jurisdiction of the special court without prior approval. The court said the present application arose from those directions, but emphasised the High Court’s intent in imposing the condition.

The judge also referred to earlier instances where Teltumbde had sought similar relaxations. In September, he had applied to travel to Bengaluru for an academic event but did not press the plea after the restrictions were pointed out. In October, he withdrew a request before the High Court seeking permission to travel to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom for lectures, after the court indicated it was disinclined to grant relief and suggested virtual participation instead.

Reiterating that the travel embargo remained purposeful, the court held that the reasons put forward did not warrant an exception. “How so ever scholar and academician the present applicant/accused be in his field,” the order stated, the circumstances were “not sort of an emergency or extreme circumstances which are inevitable”. It described the request as “sort of luxury, academic though” before rejecting it.

Teltumbde was arrested by the NIA in April 2020 for alleged involvement in the Elgaar Parishad event in Pune on December 31, 2017, which investigators claim fuelled caste violence near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial the following day. The agency has alleged he is a senior member of the banned CPI (Maoist). He was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in 2022.