Anand Teltumbde Seeks Temporary Bail To Visit Mother After Brother's Encounter Killing

Anand Teltumbde, Dalit scholar and accused in the Bhima Koregaon - Elgar Parishad case has sought the special NIA court's permission for temporary bail to visit his 90-year-old mother for 15 days following brother - Milind's - death in an encounter.A telephone conversation earlier permitted by the court did not materialise.Milind, an alleged Maoist leader was killed in an encounter by security personnel in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district along with 26 others.In his application before Special NIA judge DE Kothalikar, Teltumbde said that his father and youngest brother passed away a couple of years ago.And even though he lost contact with Milind sometime in the 1990's, his mother is over 90 years and at such a moment of bereavement in the family, he being the eldest, his presence by his mother's side and siblings would be of great moral support.Teltumbde said that he belongs to a reputed family and that he is married to the grand daughter of Dr BR Ambedkar. His other brothers are both retired Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) employees. And the eldest of his three sisters is a retired principal of a prestigious college from Nagpur.The application was filed through Advocate Neeraj Yadav. The special court has sought the NIA's response to the plea and kept it next week.Milind, 58, accused of being in-charge of CPI(M)'s Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone was also cited as an accused in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad Case.Teltumbde was arrested by the NIA on April 14, last year, after he surrendered before the agency.The National Investigation Agency has booked fifteen activists under the UAPA and accused then furthering the banned CPI(Maoist) agenda to overthrow the government.BackgroundThe Bhima Koregaon battle was fought between 25,000 Peshwa army and 500 British soldiers including people from the Mahar (Dalit) community. The names of martyrs in the war are inscribed in a memorial by the British Army back then.The hundreds of people visiting the war memorial at Bhima Koregaon were attacked on January 1, 2018, after violence erupted. They were mostly from Dalit community and one died in the stone-pelting.An FIR was registered regarding the violence the same day. However, three years since no charge sheet has been filed in the case.Another FIR by right wing activist Tushar Damgude, filed on January 8, 2018 was pursued. The houses of several activists, including Rona Wilson's and advocate Surendra Gadling were searched on April 17, 2018. It was alleged that the violence at Bhima Koregaon was a result of inflammatory speeches held at the Elgaar Parishad conference, on December 31, 2017.The scope of the investigation was eventually widened, with the Pune police claiming retrieval of incriminating documents in the form of electronic records. This included an email written by a certain 'R' to Comrade Prakash on April 18, 2017 talking of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type" operation. The email was part of the documents investigated by Arsenal.So far, 16 people have been arrested in the case as accused — Jyoti Raghoba Jagtap, Sagar Tatyaram Gorkhe, Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu and late Father Stan Swamy.

Anand Teltumbde Seeks Temporary Bail To Visit Mother After Brother's Encounter Killing

Sharmeen Hakim

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