Elgar Parishad case: NIA moves SC against bail to Anand Teltumbde by Bombay HC, hearing on Friday

In its appeal challenging the November 18 order of the Bombay HC granting the relief, the NIA said that if the accused is granted bail, “the efforts of the investigating agency…which is already undergoing great difficulty in unearthing the evidence against” Teltumbde “would suffer a fatal blow” and that he “upon being freed from the judicial custody would ensure that no evidence whatsoever could surface”.

The agency contended that the HC had “erroneously granted bail” to him “by conducting a mini-trial and roving inquiry, analysing each and every document and (Section) 164 statements threadbare contrary to the settled law and judicial pronouncements of” the Supreme Court.

The High Court, it said, “has made observations that would influence the trial and investigation” in the case.

Teltumbde, the agency said, “is an active and senior member” of the CPI (Maoist) “working in the urban areas… regularly in contact with other co-accused… and has been actively involved in furthering the larger conspiracy and commission of various crimes on behalf of the terrorist organisation”.

The accused, said the agency, was also the general secretary of Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) and a member of Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Committee, which are “frontal organisations” of the Maoists.

The appeal said he [Teltumbde] “was instrumental in organising fact-finding missions” on the directions of the party “which had allocated Rs 10 lakh for the purpose of his international campaign and visits in furtherance of the” Maoist agenda.

The NIA said “his mention was found in certain incriminating letters and documents of CPI (Maoist) particularly a letter written on 2/1/2018 by his brother… Milind Teltumbde to accused Rona Wilson”. Milind was secretary of the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh zone of the CPI (Maoist). He was killed in an encounter with security forces in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli in November 2021.

It said that Teltumbde “used to attend international conferences under the guise of his academic visits to Canada, Pakistan, USA, France, etc.” and that “in the said conferences, he used to exchange literature on ideology, training, and working strategy of CPI (Maoist) with international communist organisations”.

On the High Court’s observation that no prima facie case is made out against Teltumbde, the agency said this “is contrary to the observations made by this (Supreme) Court in his case while rejecting his plea for anticipatory bail. It pointed out that the SC in its order dated March 16, 2020, had said that “we are of the opinion that it cannot be said that no prima facie case is made out”.