Bhima Koregaon violence: Pune Police arrests scholar Anand Teltumbde in Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case
Pune Police today arrested noted scholar and author Anand Teltumbde in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by a court on Friday. Police detained Teltumbde, a professor at Goa Institute of Management, at Mumbai airport early hours Saturday. He was interrogated and later arrested, said Shivaji Bodkhe, Joint Commissioner of Pune Police. He will be produced before court in Pune, he said.
While rejecting Teltumbde, Additional sessions judge Kishor Vadane observed that investigating officer has collected sufficient material against him.
"In my view, there is sufficient material collected by the investigating officer to show the involvement of the present accused in the alleged commission of the offence," the judge observed.
The investigation was at a crucial stage and custodial interrogation of the accused was necessary, the court held.
The prosecution on Thursday had submitted an envelope containing "evidence", claiming that it proves Teltumbde's involvement in Maoist activities.
Teltumbde filed the anticipatory (pre-arrest) bail application before the Pune court after the Supreme Court rejected his plea seeking to quash the FIR against him in the Elgar Parishad case.
Prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar had argued that some of the correspondence seized by police revealed that the leaders of the banned CPI (Maoist) comrade Prakash, Milind (Teltumbde), Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen and Anand Teltumbde were in contact with each other.
"It establishes a larger conspiracy," she had said.
Also read | Bhima-Koregaon case: SC refuses to quash FIR against activist Anand Teltumbde
Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson and Shoma Sen are already arrested.
According to Pune Police, Maoists had supported the Elgar Parishad conclave held on December 31, 2017, and the inflammatory speeches there led to violent clashes at the Koregaon Bhima war memorial the next day.
(With inputs from agencies)
