Earlier this week, the NIA court in Mumbai rejected the bail application filed by Anand Teltumbde, stating that the charges against him were prima facie true. The court cited his younger brother and wanted Maoist Milind Teltumbde’s confession, wherein he admitted that he was inspired by his elder brother, Anand Teltumbde, to further the activities of the banned organisation CPI(M).
“I find much substance in the submissions made by the learned Special Public Prosecutor(S.P.P) for the smile reason that the wanted accused is the best person to state as to by who conduct or activities he was being impressed and therefore, in my view, the statement made by the wanted accused that he was impressed by the applicant for furthering the activities of a banned terrorist organisation can be said to be relevant…” read the court order announced by Justice Kothalikar while dismissing the bail application moved by Anand Teltumbde.
A key witness in the case, who was in thick with Milind Teltumbde admitted that the wanted Maoist was inspired by his elder brother, Anand Teltumbde, and often showed photographs of the applicant and his daughters. As per another key witness, he had gone to Bhopal twice with Milind and at that time Milind had informed him that he would meet with his elder brother, i.e Anand Teltumbde. The key witness said there was no meeting with Anand in the first visit. But during the second visit, Milind had visited Anand’s place and met with him.
Yet another key witness confessed that Milind used to discuss the Elgar Parishad, Bhima Koregaon programme and about participation and support given by urban members of CPI(M) to use the said platform for spreading their own ideology under the guise of using the Elgar Parishad programme. He said Sanyukta Morcha, programmes were being organised in urban areas to spread negativity and hate speech against the established government.
In his deposition, the key witness said Milind had reportedly confessed to him that he was inspired by his brother Anand for the CPI(M) movement. The witnesses revealed that Milind used to visit urban areas such as Nagpur, Pune, Chandrapur, Bhopal, Indore, Katani, Amarkantak, Mandala, Dindori, Shahdol, etc. and during that time, he used to meet applicant Anand Teltumbde for seeking his guidance on expanding the CPI(M) movement in the jungle as well as urban areas.
The witness further added that Milind used to bring Maoist literature given to him by the applicant, who attended international conferences under the pretext of academic visits and used it to train the cadres.
“…the applicant used to attend international conferences under the guise of academic visits in the Philippines, Peru, Turkey and other countries and used to bring Maoist literature and videos in pen drive/memory card, related to their ideology, tactics, weapons used by them, period of attacks, planning of sudden attacks, the extension of zones and increasing members of recruitment for CPI(M) and that such foreign literature and videos were shown to the members of CPI(M) in training and classes after approval in the CCM meeting,” the S.P.P contended.
Urban naxals prove the mail correspondence between them were not fake as alleged by pliant media organisations
Earlier this year, far-left media houses supporting the Urban Naxals accused in the Bhima Koregaon case had claimed that the emails and other documents recovered from the electronic devices of the accused were fake. Quoting a report by a so-called Digital Forensics Firm in the USA, a Washington Post report had claimed that a study of the data recovered from the laptop of Rona Wilson, one of the accused, were planted, and the report was subsequently carried by several media houses in India.
The same claim was also used during court hearings by those accused in the case. But now, it has been found that they themselves are using those emails in their defence, admitting the mails were not fake.
The full order of the NIA Court in Mumbai has been made public, and it shows how the defendant had used the same emails that were claimed to be planted through malware. According to the court order, the defence lawyer had argued that in the mail dated 28/06/2014 from Anand Teltumbde to Rona Wilson, Teltumbde had requested to delete a sentence. This shows that the applicant does not support the Maoist ideology, the defence argument claimed.
Anand Teltumbde also claimed that emails exchanged between him and coaccused Hany Babu and Stan Swamy would reveal that there is nothing to implicate the accused.
Thus, the defence side mentioned the emails multiple times seeking bail for Anand Teltumbde. By this, they themselves demolished the claim that the emails were planted on Rona Wilson’s computer, as the first mail they mentioned was recovered from that source only.
NIA court rejects bail application of Anand Teltumbde
A special NIA court in Mumbai dismissed the bail application filed by activist Anand Teltumbde, who was arrested in connection with Elgar Parishad-Maoist links. The court said the charges against him were prima facie true.
Special NIA Judge Kothalikar observed that Anand Teltumbde has failed in offering an explanation as to why his name appears as a convener on the book or pamphlet titled ‘Bhima Koregaon Shauryadin Prerana Abhiyan’, which was printed prior to the programme on December 31, 2017.
In its observation, the court said it did not find the accusation of Teltumbde’s involvement not “inherently improbable” or “wholly unbelievable”, and prima facie he was involved in furthering the activities of the banned organisation. The NIA had earlier claimed that Teltumbde was an active member of the proscribed group CPI(M) and propagated its activities.
“I do not find any merit in the argument proffered by the learned advocate for Teltumbde that he had no concern with the event of Elgar Parishad and that the allegations made against him are not prima facie true,” the judge said.
