HC asks Centre, NIA to respond after plea claims probe transfer politically motivated

A petition filed by criminal lawyer Surendra Gadling and poet Sudhir Dhawale, both accused in the Elgar Parishad case, before the Bombay high court (HC), has challenged the case being transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), claiming it to be politically motivated as a charge sheet and a supplementary charge sheet were already filed by Pune Police. In the petition filed last week, Gadling and Dhawale alleged that the transfer of the probe was done by the Centre, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost power in Maharashtra.

The case, in which several other activists have been arrested and accused of having Maoist links, was transferred from the Pune Police to the NIA on January 24. According to the prosecution, inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, triggered caste violence at Bhima-koregaon the next day.

A division bench of justices SS Shinde and Abhay Ahuja on Tuesday asked the Centre and

NIA to respond to the petition. Additional solicitor general Anil Singh and advocate Sandesh Patil, appearing for the Centre and NIA respectively, sought time to file their response to the petition. HC posted the matter for hearing on July 14.

The petition said the Centre had specific knowledge about the offence as early as 2018, but had not directed the NIA to probe for one- and-a-half years.

The petitioners also claimed that no new statement was recorded or evidence was gathered by Pune Police after it had filed a supplementary charge sheet on February 21, 2019. The only change that prompted the Centre to direct NIA to probe the case was that the new state government was intending to form a special investigation team (SIT) to inquire into the case.

Meanwhile, HC also heard the application of another accused, activist Sudha Bharadwaj, who through senior advocate Yug Choudhary, has challenged the rejection of her interim bail application by a special court.

After hearing the application, the court posted the hearing on Friday as copies of the petition were not served to all parties.