Anand Teltumbde, accused in the Koregaon Bhima case, was arrested during the early hours of Saturday morning from Mumbai airport. The Dalit scholar and activist’s application for anticipatory bail was turned down by the Pune session court yesterday after which the Pune police arrested him this morning.
Rohan Nahar – Teltumbde’s lawyer however alleged that the Supreme Court had granted ‘a relief of four weeks’ to the Dalit scholar till February 11, which makes this arrest go against the court order.
Additional sessions judge Kishore Vadane had observed in his judgement yesterday that there was ‘sufficient material’ to indicate the involvement of the accused. He further added that the investigation was at a ‘crucial stage’ while rejecting the pre-arrest bail application. Earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected his petition to cancel the First Incident Report (FIR) against him in the Koregaon Bhima case.
The Dalit activist and scholar stands accused by the Pune Police of having incited violence at Koregaon Bhima. At the Elgar Parishad conclave at Shaniwarwada, inflammatory speeches were delivered on December 31, 2017 by Maoist leaders, allege the Pune Police, leading to large scale violence at Koregaon Bhima war memorial the very next day.
Some of the other activists who also stand accused include Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj, P Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha.
