Elgar Parishad case: JNU student Umar Khalid says speech not scripted

Jawaharlal Nehru University JNU student Umar Khalid has told the National Investigation Agency NIA that no one had given him a script for his speech at the Elgar Parishad event which allegedly led to violence in BhimaKoregaon in PuneKhalid had attended the event organised to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of BhimaKoregaon at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31 2017A Pune resident who lodged a police complaint against Khalid claimed that the JNU student had made provocative speeches at the event and his remarks were aimed at creating disharmony and rift between the communities which led to the violence at BhimaKoregaon on January 1 2018An FIR was registered against Khalid for allegedly making provocative speeches but he was never made an accused in the Elgar ParishadMaoist links case which the NIA is probing intoIn his statement to the investigating agency Khalid said he was invited to the meeting by Justice retired B G KolsePatil one of the organisers of the eventKhalids statement was part of the voluminous set of documents submitted by the NIA as additional evidence before the special court recentlyDuring my visit to Pune I stayed at the house of Justice retired Kolse Patil I dont remember who arranged the flight tickets for me Before delivering my speech at any place I take local knowledge from any known person No one had given me any script of speech for the Elgar Parishad meeting the studentactivist has statedMany people were present on the stage at the Elgar Parishad meeting and a video of it can be seen on YouTube along with his speech he saidOnce the event got over Khalid said he went to retd Justice Kolse Patils houseNext day many media persons came to his house I had also given one bite to a media person At that time many persons related to the Elgar Parishad meeting were present in Justice Kolse Patils house At about 11 am I came to know that BJP and RSS persons had attacked people who came to visit Bhima Koregaon the statement quoting Khalid saidKhalid has also told the NIA that he knew Rona Wilson an accused in the Elgar Parishad case as she had come to JNU to deliver a speech and he also knew another accused Arun Ferreira because he had attended his book launch eventBesides Khalids statement the major chunk of the additional evidence has the details of the programmes and meetings held at Bagaicha an organization founded by Father Stan SwamySwamy an accused in the Elgar ParishadMaoist links case died in July last year while waiting for bail on medical groundsIn its latest documents the NIA has also submitted statements of Xavier Soreng and David Soloman both said to be very close to Swamy The duo was part of the managing team of BagaichaIn the statement the duo has claimed that the premises of Bagaicha was used by several organisations for their training programmesThe document with which the witnesses were confronted claimed that one of the expected outcomes for the project was forming strong unions from unorganised sector working class minorities with a longterm agenda of challenging fascist ruling powers in Jharkhand and other states To establish working relations with certain banned rebel groups who have welloiled network in and around the tribal belt of Jharkhand Orissa and ChhattisgarhThe case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held at Shaniwar Wada 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 Maoists The probe in the case in which more than a dozen activists and academicians have been named as accused was later transferred to the NIAThis 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