Bhima Koregaon case: Anand Teltumbde surrenders before NIA; produced in court

Bhima Koregaon case: Anand Teltumbde surrenders before NIA; produced in court

He was arrested and then produced before the sessions court, which remanded him in the agency’s custody till April 18. The remand plea by the NIA sought permission to handcuff Teltumbde.

Bhavna UchilUpdated: Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 04:31 AM IST
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Anand Teltumbde (Centre) | Twitter/@AdityaMenon22

Mumbai: Dalit intellectual, writer and academic Anand Teltumbde, accused in the Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon case on Tuesday surrendered before the National Investigation Agency’s office in the city as the apex court deadline for him to surrender ended.

He was arrested and then produced before the sessions court, which remanded him in the agency’s custody till April 18. The remand plea by the NIA sought permission to handcuff Teltumbde.

It stated, “Permission may please be granted to use handcuff to avoid physical contact with the accused amidst COVID-19 pandemic and spread of Novel Coronavirus.” This pleading was however not pressed for by the agency in court. No order is said to be passed on it either.

Producing the professor before court, the NIA special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty sought his custody for ten days. The agency’s plea stated that his custody was required for interrogation since his call data showed that he was present at the place of offence at the relevant period and was in contact with the arrested accused.

He was the convener of Elgar Parishad, where inflammatory speeches led to violence in Bhima Koregaon the following day, it stated. He was a recipient of funds from Central Committee of CPI (Maoist) and has links with the organisation, it alleged.

Appearing for Teltumbde, his lawyers Adv Marukh Adenwala and Adv Arif Siddiqui argued that in the past 18 months, no notice was served on Teltumbde to appear before the investigation agencies for recording his statement if they needed to interrogate him.

As he had come to the agency’s office to surrender, Teltumbde – the husband of Rama Ambedkar, a granddaughter of Dr. BR Ambedkar, was accompanied by family members Prakash Ambedkar, Anandraj Ambedkar and wife Rama. There has been outrage over the arrest as April 14 was also the birth anniversary of Dr. BR Ambedkar.

On March 16, a division bench of the Supreme Court had rejected the anticipatory bail pleas of activists Gautam Navlakha and Teltumbde. Both had been booked by the Pune police for alleged Maoist links in 2018.

They had been granted three weeks’ time to surrender. While rejecting their pre-arrest bail pleas the SC had said that there was ‘prima-facie evidence’ of their involvement in Bhima Koregaon violence. The duo had then sought for extension of time to surrender, which the apex court did not grant and directed that they surrender within a week, that is, April 14.

Meanwhile, civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha surrendered before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday here after the Supreme Court had rejected his plea seeking extension of time in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

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