On Monday, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court rejected the bail pleas of Delhi University professor Hany Babu and Kabir Kala Manch members Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap, all of whom were arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad case.
Additional Sessions Judge D E Kothalikar rejected their bail petitions.
According to the NIA, Jagtap, Gaichor and Gorkhe were members of Kabir Kala Manch and Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerana Abhiyaan that had arranged the Elgar Parishad outside at Shaniwar Wada fort in Pune on Dec 31, 2017.
The agency had arrested them in Sept 2020. They were charged for sedition and under other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly giving inflammatory speeches at the Elgar Parishad event, which the agency alleged led to the riots at Bhima Koregaon.
The agency alleged that the accused had performed a skit in the event and allegedly affected peace and tranquillity. NIA had further said the banned organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist) had a role in the programme “to implicate strong Maoist thoughts in the depressed classes to turn them towards unconstitutional violent activities.”
The Lawyer submitted that the event was organised for discussion on anti-casteist ideology, but somehow the prosecution alleged that it was to propagate ideas against the Govt.
Rathod asked that “I have every right to criticise the government. I was saying that the party is casteist in nature. Where is sedition in this? BJP-RSS do not constitute the government or the nation. They have criticised Narendra Modi for his policies. Every citizen has the right to criticise the ruling government. Where is sedition in this?".
He told the court, “I am very much within my rights. I am a critic of their political leader. So when I criticised him or his policies, I can’t be charged for sedition".
The agency told the court that Delhi University professor Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator with the other accused.
NIA moves for custody of another accused
Meanwhile, the NIA moved for the custody of Naxal leader Prashant Bose, 75, alias Kishan Da. Bose was arrested by the Jharkhand police in November 2021, and is already named as a wanted accused in the charge sheet filed by the Pune Police.
Bose was arrested by the police when he was travelling from Parasnath in Giridih district to Saranda forest area in West Singhbhum to hold the meeting of CPI (Maoist). Bose was named in a charge sheet after a ‘Maoist communication’ that allegedly mentioned a plot to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The communication was received from another accused Rona Wilson. The letter stated, “Com Kisan and few other senior comrades have proposed concrete steps to end Modi Raj. We are thinking along the lines of another Rajiv Gandhi-type incident.”
ED wants to record the statement of Gautam Navlakha
ED once again moved the NIA court to record the statement of jailed activist Navlakha in a money laundering case registered against news website Newsclick. The ED had alleged the web portal and its director received ₹30 crores from March 2018, and March 2020, some part of it was paid to Navlakha as salary since he is an independent director in the venture.
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