Bhima-Koregaon: Anand Teltumbde's anticipatory bail plea rejected by Pune court

A special court in Pune rejected the anticipatory bail application of Anand Teltumbde, the Dalit scholar who is among those accused of masterminding the Bhima-Koregaon violence of January 1, 2018, and of having links to banned Maoist organisations.

"Prima facie, there is sufficient material collected by the investigating officer to show involvement of the accused in the alleged commission of offence," the order stated. The special judge Kishor Vadane pronounced the order on Friday. 

After his name appeared in the FIR, Teltumbde approached the court to quash the FIR against him. However, he did not get any relief even in the Supreme Court as the apex court refused to quash the order. The court however granted him the protection from arrest for four weeks to apply for anticipatory bail. Following the Supreme Court's order, Teltumbde had submitted the application for anticipatory bail in special court in Pune. 

Opposing his bail application, the special public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar had argued that the seized documents from the earlier arrested accused clearly shows Teltumbde's involvement in Maoist activities. She also argued that the police have evidence to prove that Teltumbde was receiving funds from the banned CPI (Maoists), and that he was enticing students to join the Maoist movement.

While rejecting the anticipatory bail, the court in its order observed that prima facie there is sufficient material collected by the investigating officer to show involvement of the accused in the commission of the crime. "Moreover, the investigation in respect of present accused is at very crucial stage and it appears that the custodial interrogation of the accused is necessary," the court observed in its order. 

The defence counsel on Thursday had argued that the police are mentioning that there are some references of one 'Comrade Anand' in some of the letters seized by them. However, there is no evidence to prove that the Comrade Anand is Anand Teltumbde. 

The court, however in its order stated that the prosecutor submitted some papers in sealed envelope to the court which shows that the prosecution prima facie has some material prove the identity of the accused as mentioned in the seized documents.