Dr. Anand Teltumbde, a human rights activist and a writer, was arrested, on the 2nd of February, at the Mumbai Airport.
The Pune Police alleged, Anand Teltumbde is one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad case and arrested him around 3:30 A.M., at the domestic terminal of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai.
As of now, Mr. Teltumbde is being held at the Lashkar Police Station in Pune and later, he is expected to appear in a Pune court. He was arrested a day after a Pune Court, on the 1st of February, rejected his plea for an anticipatory bail, citing the issue is serious and there is enough evidence to prove his link with the violence.
Kishor Vadane, an Additional Sessions Judge, said, “In my view, there is sufficient material collected by the investigating officer to show the involvement of the present accused in the alleged commission of the offence. Moreover, investigation in respect of present applicant/accused is at (a) very crucial stage.”
However, Rohan Nahar, the lawyer of Anand Teltumbde, claimed, the arrest is illegal, as Anand was provided protection from arrest by the Supreme Court (SC,) till the 11th of February.
Mr. Nahar said, “The Supreme Court in its January 11th order had given Anand Teltumbde a relief of four weeks which means he could not be arrested till February 11th, but still the arrest has been made. Will also inform the court about this order.”
The Pune Police, on the 28th of August 2018, conducted raids in multiple cities across India and arrested five activists for a Maoist plot against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and linked the activists with the Bhima Koregaon violence case (2017.)
The activists arrested were Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Pereira and Vernon Gonsalves. The list also included Anand Teltumbde, who was supposed to be arrested at his Goa home, but unfortunately, he was not at home at the time.
Social media platforms like Twitter are flooded with posts demanding the release of Anand Teltumbde, saying #ReleaseDrAnandTeltumbde.
Why is the regime scared of Anand?#ReleaseDrAnandTeltumbde
— Mini Nair (@minicnair) February 2, 2019
.@svaradarajan , Akhil Gogoi, and possibly @jigneshmevani80 to also address the meeting. #ReleaseDrAnandTeltumbde pic.twitter.com/TaQtOHt6g4
— Saurav Datta (@SauravDatta29) February 2, 2019
Stay tuned for further updates.
