Teltumbe moves discharge application, claims no evidence of CPI (Maoist) links

Activist Anand Teltumbde an accused in the Elgar ParishadMaoist links case on Thursday moved a discharge application before the special NIA court here claiming that the probe agency has not produced any material to show that he is a member of CPI Maoist or his alleged role in the caseTeltumbde 70 was arrested in April 2020 for his alleged links to the Elgar Parishad case and has been lodged in Taloja jail in Navi MumbaiThe activist through his lawyers Sathyanarayanan and Neeraj Yadav filed a discharge application before special NIA judge D E KothalikarAccording to the plea the National Investigation Agency NIA has alleged that Teltumbde and seven others are members of CPI Maoist and were deeply involved in the furtherance of the banned organisations agenda through different meansCPI Maoists believe that the Indian state is being run by a collaboration of imperialist comprador and bourgeoisie and feudal lords and the eventual objective is to establish Janta Sarkar through revolution submitted by a commitment to protracted arms struggle to undermine and seize power from the stateTeltumbde in his application claimed that the NIA has not produced any material before the court to show that he is a member of CPI MaoistResponding to the allegation by the probe agency that he along with other activists took part in the programme organised under the banner of Elgar Parishad Teltumbde claimed that except for an omnibus statement there is no material in the chargesheet to fortify the chargeThe probe agency has alleged that the accused is a senior member of CPI Maoist and was in contact with other arrested accused He was the general secretary of the CPDR and a member of Anuradha Ghandy Memorial committee AGMC which are frontal organisations of CPI MaoistTeltumbe claimed that the prosecution has not brought on record any material to show that the CPDR is a frontal organisation of CPI Maoist and the evidence collected during the investigation would in fact show that there is no link between the two organisationsThe activist further refuted the NIAs allegation that his role in connection with the Bhima Koregaon programme was appreciated by CPI Maoist and there is evidence about an allocation of Rs 10 lakh to him by the banned organisation for his international campaign and visits for furthering its agendaThe prosecution in a list of documents has rolled out several correspondences allegedly exchanged between various accused However there is nothing in them to decipher that Teltumbdes role in connection with Bhima Koregaon was appreciated the discharge application statedPraying for discharge from the case Teltumbde has said that the court cannot act merely as a post office or a mouthpiece of the prosecution but has to consider the broad probabilities of the case total effect of the evidence and documents produced before the court any basic infirmities etcAt the time of framing of the charges the probative value of the material on record cannot be gone into but before framing a charge the court must apply its judicial mind on the material placed on record and must be satisfied that the commission of offence by the accused was possible the plea saidBesides Teltumbe other accused Sudhir Dawale and Mahesh Raut also sought discharge from the caseMeanwhile the NIA on Thursday filed its reply to the discharge application of artist and singer Jyoti JagtapThe probe agency has claimed that there was adequate grounds and sufficient material evidence on record to sustain the charge against the accusedIt is submitted that the averments made in the grounds seeking discharge of the applicant are not a cogent and valid grounds as such present application is devoid of merit and liable to be dismissed the NIA saidThe case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31 2017 which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the KoregaonBhima war memorial located on the citys outskirtsThe Pune police had claimed the conclave was backed by MaoistsThe probe in the case in which more than a dozen activists and academicians have been named as accused was later transferred to the National Investigation AgencyThe court will hear the matter on May 4This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever