Bhima Koregaon: NIA moves Supreme Court against Bombay High Court bail to Anand Teltumbde

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Bombay High Court granting bail to Dalit rights activist Anand Teltumbde in the case relating to his alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence of 2018..Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta mentioned the matter on Tuesday before a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud who agreed to hear the case on Friday this week..Advocate Aparna Bhat appeared on behalf of Teltumbde..The case against Teltumbde by the NIA was that he was one of the convenors of the December Elgar Parishad event, where he also had made provocative speeches leading to riots on January 1, 2018. The scholar had moved the High Court in September last year after the Special Court under the NIA Act had rejected his bail holding that he was a member of banned organisation, Communist Party of India (Maoist)..The High Court had passed its order granting bail last Friday after extensively hearing the bail application.The High Court had said that there was no evidence prima facie against Teltumbde to suggest that he indulged in 'terrorist acts' under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, as alleged by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).The bench had stated that only the offences under Section 38 and 39 (relating to membership in terrorist organisation) were made out against Teltumbde..The maximum punishment in those offences was 10 years of imprisonment, and Teltumbde had already been incarcerated for more than 2 years in prison, the High Court had said.In view of this, it released him on bail after payment of ₹1 lakh as surety.The High Court had stayed its order for a week to enable the NIA to file appeal before the Supreme Court..The NIA's petition before the top court said that the High Court erroneously granted bail to Teltumbde after conducting a “mini trial and a roving inquiry”.“Analysing each and every document and 164 statements threadbare contrary to the settled law and judicial pronouncements of the Hon’ble Court,” the plea stated.It was pointed out that while hearing the bail petition, the High Court examined in detail as many as five documents seized during investigation along with three statements.Further, the NIA contended that the High Court minutely went into the details of each document, and made observations that would influence the trial and investigation.If Teltumbde is allowed bail, NIA's efforts would suffer a fatal blow, it was stated.“The respondent herein who is highly educated and upon being freed from the judicial custody would ensure that no evidence whatsoever could surfaced,” added the petition.