The draft lays down 17 charges against 15 accused, including human rights and civil liberties activists, and they have been sought to be charged under various sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
A special court in Mumbai has denied bail to three persons accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, saying that the material on record suggests that the trio, along with other members of the CPI-Maoist, a banned organisation, hatched a "serious conspiracy" to create unrest in the country and to overthrow the Modi government.
Poet-activist Varavara Rao, 81, is the only accused in the case to have secured an interim bail. The Bombay high court had in February this year granted Rao conditional bail for six months considering his medical condition. Rao had been in jail since his arrest in August 2018.
This senior cop who deposed in such detail about the Elgar Parishad, however, claimed to know nothing about the opposition to it from organisations such as Milind Ekbote's Samastha Hindu Aghadi as well as Pune's then Mayor Mukta Tilak.
The FIR against him was re-registered in January 2020, and Navlakha had surrendered before the NIA on April 14, last year. According to the prosecution, some activists allegedly made inflammatory speeches and provocative statements at the Elgar Parishad meet in Pune on December 31, 2017, which triggered violence at Koregaon Bhima in the district the next day.
The HC had in its order last week said Bharadwaj was entitled to bail and its denial would be in breach of her fundamental right to life and personal liberty, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
For four days, the officer avoided giving any straight answers, becoming the first witness in the 48 witnesses that have appeared so far, to have achieved this feat.
A government lawyer told the Bombay high court on Friday that though prison inmates can talk to their relatives or lawyers on phone, she was not sure if the facility could be granted to activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
The Koregaon-Bhima Inquiry Commission, probing the January 2018 violence near a memorial in Maharashtra's Pune district, has told the state government that it is suspending all scheduled hearings till the government does not provide it a "suitable accommodation" in Mumbai to conduct the probe into the case.
Either this affidavit was prepared a long time back, or, Ambedkar has not been following the Commission's hearings.
Talking to reporters in Kolhapur, Pawar said it was not right on the part of the Centre to hand over the probe into the case, which was with the Pune police, to the NIA as law and order was a state subject. NCP leader and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said Uddhav Thackeray had overruled him on the probe in the case.
Supreme Court Justice M M Sundresh recused himself from hearing the bail plea of advocate Surendra Gadling, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. The case has been adjourned multiple times.
The friends and relatives of 16 accused, including Hany Babu, Stan Swamy and Sudha Bharadwaj, made the demand during a virtual press conference.
Navlakha approached the HC last year, challenging the special NIA court's order of July 12, 2020 that rejected his plea for statutory bail.
Shivaji Pawar made a startling revelation: Though the subject matter of his investigation was the January 1 violence, he had not examined any of the witnesses to that violence.
In a statement, they said it was 'unconscionable' that someone as old as Swamy and who was suffering poor health was put in jail amid a pandemic.
She has been in custody as an undertrial since her arrest in 2018.
Thackeray also said he won't block NPR but will not allow NRC in Maharashtra. He assured that he will 'personally check the columns' in the NPR, adding there shouldn't be any problem with the exercise in Maharashtra.
The panel had earlier summoned Pawar in 2020, but he could not appear before it due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Later, another summons was issued to Pawar for appearing before the commission on February 23 and 24 this year, but the senior politician had sought a fresh date, saying he wanted to file an additional affidavit before recording his testimony.
Munde, whose party is a key ally in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, has made the demand in a letter written to Thackeray on Monday.
A special NIA court in Mumbai has denied poet-activist Varavara Rao's request to permanently relocate to Hyderabad, citing a lack of authority to modify bail conditions set by the Supreme Court in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
Minister Jayant Patil said the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government favoured granting relief to those who were falsely implicated.
The term "urban Naxal" was used by the Pune Police probing the alleged links between the Elgar Parishad conclave of December 31, 2017 and the caste clashes around Koregaon Bhima in Pune district the next day.
The special court judge D E Kothalikar has asked the national probe agency to file its reply on the matter on November 26.
'Whenever Dalits have agitated on the streets, the government has blamed Naxalites.'
'These charges of the prosecution will fall to the ground and I am 100 per cent sure of that.'
Pawar recorded his testimony before the commission in Mumbai in connection with the January 2018 violence at the Koregaon Bhima war memorial in Pune district of Maharashtra.
Activist Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, on Thursday moved a discharge application before the special NIA court in Mumbai, 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 case.
'Both sides were so embittered by what had happened last year that I didn't know what to expect.'
Researcher Rona Wilson and activist Sudhir Dhawale, accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, were released on bail from a Navi Mumbai prison on Friday, more than six years after they were arrested. The duo walked out of the Taloja jail after completing bail formalities before the special NIA court, over a fortnight after they were granted bail by the Bombay High Court. The HC granted bail to Wilson and Dhawale on January 8, noting they had been in jail since 2018 and the trial in the case, in which anti-terror act UAPA has been invoked, was yet to start. Apart from Dhawale and Wilson, 14 other activists and academicians were arrested in the case. Eight of them have been granted bail till now, with one, Mahesh Raut, still in jail as the appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against his bail is pending before the Supreme Court. Jesuit priest and activist Stan Swamy, one of the accused, died in 2021 while lodged in judicial custody. The case pertains to provocative speeches allegedly delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, triggering violence at Koregaon-Bhima, a village outside Pune city, the next day. The Pune police had claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists. The NIA later took over the probe.
Rao, 82, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), is currently undergoing treatment in the Mumbai-based Nanavati Hospital where he had been admitted by the Maharashtra government following the high court's intervention.
Apart from Sharad Pawar, the commission will also record the evidence of the then superintendent of police (Pune Rural) Suvez Haq, then additional SP, Sandip Pakhale and the then additional commissioner, Pune, Ravindra Sengaonkar, between February 21 and February 25.
The court asked National Investigation Agency to file its reply on Anand's plea on December 1.
The case pertains to the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which according to the Pune police was funded by Maoists.
'The Elgar Parishad turned out to be the first rallying cry against the BJP and RSS in Maharashtra.' 'The speakers took a vow not to vote for the BJP.'
"Over 50 files were created on Swamy's hard drive, including incriminating documents that fabricated links between him and the Maoist insurgency," the report said.
The case pertains to the organisation of Elgar Parishad in Pune on December 31, 2017 which promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence, resulting in the loss of life and property and statewide agitation in Maharashtra, an NIA spokesperson said.
The accused were initially placed under house arrest in August last year by the Pune Police in Maharashtra and were later taken into custody on October 26, after a sessions court in Pune rejected their bail pleas.
'Was he afraid that his answers during cross-examination would land him in trouble under the new ruling dispensation?'
Pawar filed an additional affidavit before the probe panel on April 11, a copy of which was made available on Thursday.
