A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday remanded Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu MT in NIA custody for seven days till August 4.
The professor of English literature was arrested by the central agency on July 28. On Wednesday, the agency sought custody for 10 days of the 54-year-old, stating that they had recovered some letters from his electronic devices which reveal his involvement in the Elgar Parishad case. The agency also told the court that he has links with the banned CPI(Maoist) and that he is an associate of the arrested accused in the case. It further said that it has found a document which shows his “deep-rooted” involvement and called him a “supporter of Naxal activities and movements”.
The NIA told further that it needed his custody to confront him with facts revealed during investigation from other accused in the case.
Appearing for Babu, advocates Mihir Desai and R. Sathyanarayan opposed further custodial interrogation of the professor and told the court that he had already been under interrogation by the NIA since the past four to five days.
Special NIA judge AT Wankhede while giving the NIA his custody for seven days observed that allegations against Babu are serious in nature and noted the allegation that he has links with the banned CPI Maoist. “Looking to the nature of the allegations levelled against the accused, the demand of the police custody demand by the investigation officer is well-founded,” the court said.
Babu, an anti-caste activist was summoned to Mumbai from Noida by the NIA for questioning. He had called the summons an act of harassment during the pandemic and denied any role in the Bhima Koregaon case. His house had been searched in September 2019 in connection with the case and his laptop and some books seized.
