Bhima-koregaon: Activist urges HC to quash FIR

MUMBAI: Civil rights activist Anand Teltumbde, named an accused by the Pune police in the Elgar Parishad Bhima-koregaon, on Monday denied all charges against him, urging the Bombay high court (HC) to quash the FIR against him.

Even as the police argued before the court that it had ample evidence that “implicated” Teltumbde in the case, the latter told a bench of Justices BP Dharmadhikari and Sarang Kotwal that he was not a part of anything illegal.

Teltumbde’s lawyer, senior advocate Mihir Desai, told the bench that on December 30 and 31 last year, his client was in Goa and not in Pune.

“Teltumbde wasn’t present at the site of the incident. He has been available for questioning, but the police is yet to summon him,” Desai said.

Advocate Aruna Pai, who appeared for the Pune Police, however, objected to Teltumbde’s plea, saying there was adequate incriminating evidence against the activist but he was yet to be arrested as the police were “busy” probing other accused. The bench heard a bunch of petitions filed in the case by Teltumbde, and his co-accused activist Gautam Navlakha-- arrested in August by the Pune Police for his alleged links to “Maoists” and an event, Elgar Parishad, held on December 31 last year.

Delhi-based Navlakaha was subsequently put under house arrest on the Supreme Court orders. However, on October 1, the Delhi High Court ordered Navlakha’s release. As per police, the Elgar Parishad event was funded and supported by Maoists. At the event, held a day before the January 1 caste clashes at Koregaon-bhima, located on the outskirts of Pune city, the activists made inflammatory speeches and provocative statements that contributed to the violence, the police said.