Hany Babu sent to NIA custody till August 4

Hany Babu, who was arrested by the NIA on Tuesday in connection with the Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case, was produced before the special NIA court on Wednesday morning.

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday remanded Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil (54), an associate professor in the Department of English of Delhi University (DU), to the central agency’s custody under August 4.

The prosecution, while seeking his custody, argued that Tharayil had links with the outlawed Communist Party of India (CPI) (Maoist) and was one of the key conspirators in the case. (Photo: Twitter)

Tharayil, who was arrested by the NIA on Tuesday in connection with the Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case, was produced before the special NIA court on Wednesday morning.

The special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty demanded his custody with NIA for 10 days for his custodial interrogation.

The prosecution, while seeking his custody, argued that Tharayil had links with the outlawed Communist Party of India (CPI) (Maoist) and was one of the key conspirators in the case.

The prosecution also pointed out that there were letters exchanged between the accused, which were recovered by Pune Police that initially investigated the Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case, and later NIA took over it on January 24.

The investigating agency allegedly found the mention of his name and role in those letters.

The plea was opposed by his lawyer R. Sathyanarayan claiming that Tharayil was being interrogated for the last four-five days and as a result, his further custody is not needed.

The court after hearing both the side, observed, “looking at the nature of the offence and the allegations levelled against the accused, the demand for his custody for 10 days is well-founded”.

Later, the court remanded him to NIA custody until August 4.

Earlier on April 14, the central agency had arrested academic and civil rights activists Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha for their alleged involvement in the same case.

Tharayil is the third person, who has been arrested by NIA.

The agency claimed that during further investigation, it was revealed that Tharayil was propagating Maoist ideology and was a “co-conspirator” with the other arrested accused in the Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case.