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HomeIndiaGovernanceActivist Anand Teltumbde released after Pune court calls his arrest 'illegal'

Activist Anand Teltumbde released after Pune court calls his arrest ‘illegal’

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A day after rejecting Teltumbde’s anticipatory bail application, the same lower court says high court and apex court also competent authority.

Mumbai: A Pune trial court paved the way for immediate release of civil rights activist and author Anand Teltumbde within hours after the Pune Police arrested him early Saturday in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case, terming the arrest as “illegal.”

“Taking into consideration all facts and circumstances, I have come to the conclusion that arrest of accused — Anand Teltumbde — made by investigating officer is against impugned order by Honourable Apex Court,” special judge K.D. Vadane said, referring to the 14 January Supreme Court order granting Teltumbde protection from arrest for four weeks

“Therefore impugned arrest of accused — Anand Teltumbde — by investigating officer is illegal one and also amounts to contempt of order of Honourable Apex Court,” said Vadane.

The court was hearing an application filed by Teltumbde’s lawyer who sought the release of the activist and action against the Pune Police for contempt of court.

The application said that the arrest was “illegal and contemptuous,” considering the top court order which allowed the activist to seek regular or pre-arrest bail from the ‘competent authority’ during the period.

The prosecution responded saying the investigating authority had every legal right to arrest the accused after he “extinguished” the protection granted by the top court when he appeared before the same lower court Friday.

However, Vadane said that ‘competent authority’ does not only mean the lower court and the applicant has the option of approaching the high court and the apex court too during the four-week reprieve that he has been granted.


Also read: No evidence to link Hindu group leader Bhide to Bhima Koregaon attack, says Maharashtra CM


Same court rejected anticipatory bail

The same court had Friday rejected Teltumbde’s plea for anticipatory bail, saying there is “sufficient material” to show his involvement in the alleged commission of offence.

On Friday, judge Vadane had said that the investigation is at crucial stage and it appears that custodial interrogation of the accused is necessary.

Following the lower court’s order, the Pune police arrested Teltumbde, also a professor at the Goa Institute of Management, from the domestic terminal of the Mumbai airport at 3.30 am Saturday for alleged links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).


Also read: A year after Bhima-Koregaon clashes, here’s why the Maharashtra village erupted


The case

Teltumbde has categorically rejected allegations that he was associated with the CPI (Maoist). He even wrote an open letter to the public, requesting for their support, saying he has shown integrity of the highest degree in his four-decade-long academic and corporate career, and never in his worst nightmares did he imagine that the state apparatus will turn against him and look at him as a criminal.

The Pune Police have so far arrested nine persons — activists and advocates — in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence on 1 January, 2018, which happened a day after an event was organised at Elgaar Parishad in Pune. One chargesheet has been filed while a second is expected to be filed this month.

The police have alleged that the accused are members of the banned CPI (Maoist) and have been actively trying to destabilise the society and overthrow the democratically-elected government.

In August 2018, the police also raided Teltumbde’s house in Goa when he was not home, but did not seize anything from raid.

This report has been modified to add details from the court order.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Meaning no disrespect, but the trial court is tying itself up in knots. It would be in everyone’s interest if its earlier order is tested in the apex court. That would clarify the legal position for the future.

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