Elgar Parishad case: Bombay HC gives NIA 3 weeks to file reply to Anand Teltumbde's bail plea

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar gave three weeks to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file a reply to a bail plea made by Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case registered in Pune in January 2018.
He is accused of alleged Maoist links and under the anti-terror law—Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Teltumbde, 70, who was a professor in Goa, has appealed against an order passed by the special NIA court denying him bail.
The NIA court, while rejecting his bail plea, had discarded his claims of being in Pune only on a wedding invitation and that his presence at Shaniwar Wada, the venue of the event in Pune, was only to meet his wife’s nephew.
His appeal, argued by senior counsel Mihir Desai, contends that the trial court has erred in not considering his lack of association with the Elgar Parishad and also that there was no other evidence to link him with the serious allegations of being connected to any banned CPI (Maoist) organization or any of the alleged anti-terror offences.
The NIA Court had in its July 12 order said that while it was true that he was invited for a wedding on December 31, 2017, the fact that he went to Shaniwar Wada, the venue of the Elgar Parishad, “goes to prima facie suggest that he was also connected with the Parishad."