A special court on Wednesday granted the National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody of activist Jyoti Jagtap, who had been arrested by the agency the previous day.
Special judge under the NIA Act RR Bhosale granted custody to the NIA of the 33-year-old till September 11. The agency had sought her custody for eight days, stating that her name figures in the original FIR registered in the case in early January, 2018, and that she is part of a deep-rooted conspiracy that could severely impact society.
Appearing for Jagtap, her advocate Susan Abraham, assisted by advocates Barun Kumar and Nilesh Ukey, argued that the FIR was registered about two years ago. Thereafter, they told the court that both the Pune Police, which was earlier in charge of the case, and the NIA, which took over later, have questioned her and that arrest and custodial interrogation was not required.
The court, in its order, granting the agency custody of Jagtap to the agency, said that after the FIR was registered, many people have been arrested and investigation has been conducted and that serious offences having severe impact on society are under investigation. It further said that Japtap, who has been named in the FIR, needs to be investigated in line with the earlier progress in investigation. The court said that prima-facie sufficient material is evident against her to grant her custody to the agency.
Jagtap, herself a cultural activist, is the wife of Ramesh Gaichor, who was arrested on Monday. Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe, members of Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), a cultural troupe, had been produced before court on Tuesday and had also been granted custody with the NIA till September 11. The NIA in a press release, had called the KKM a frontal organisation of the banned CPI (Maoist).