Bhima Koregaon: NIA court allows Anand Teltumbde to travel to Bengaluru to receive Basava Rashtriya Puraskar award

Dr Anand Teltumbde has been allowed to travel to Bengaluru to receive the Basava Rashtriya Puraskar award for 2022–23. The award recognises individuals and organisations for their achievements in the areas of literature, social justice and harmony.

—

TODAY, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court of special judge Rajesh Kataria allowed Dalit scholar, academic and activist, Dr Anand Teltumbde to travel to Bengaluru to receive the Basava Rashtriya Puraskar award for 2022–23 from the Karnataka government.

Teltumbde is an accused in the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad Maoist links and criminal conspiracy case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

On November 18, 2022, the Bombay High Court had granted regular bail to Teltumbde. Later, on an appeal by the NIA, the Supreme Court decided not to interfere with the high court's Order.

Yesterday, Teltumbde had filed an application at the NIA court, seeking permission to travel to Karnataka's state capital to receive the award to be presented by the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

According to the letter addressed to Teltumbde by the director of the department of Kannada and culture, the award recognises Teltumbde's work on the preachings of humanitarian Basavanna and other Shivasharanas.

The letter says that the award will be given in the name of Jagjyoti Basaveshwar to recognise individuals and organisations for their achievements in the areas of literature, social justice and harmony.

The letter requests Teltumbde's presence at the award function on January 31, Wednesday.

Allowing Teltumbde to travel to Bengaluru on January 31 and February 1, the court directed him to follow certain conditions.

Teltumbde was required to report to the NIA court today and furnish details of his journey, and the address and contact number of the place he would be staying at in Bengaluru.

The court mandated Teltumbde to attend the ongoing Bhima Koregaon matter posted on February 2 in Mumbai.

In addition, the NIA court directed Teltumbde to follow the bail conditions imposed by the Bombay High Court in the Order dated November 18, 2022.

Background

In April 2020, Teltumbde had to surrender to the NIA for allegedly being a senior member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

In September 2021, a special NIA court rejected Teltumbde's bail application on medical grounds. Teltumbde had raised the contention that he suffered from chronic asthma, chronic cervical spondylitis, supraspinatus tendinopathy and prostatomegaly.

On December 1, 2021, the special NIA court denied Teltumbde's interim bail application to be with his 90-year-old mother in the wake of the death of his brother Milind Teltumbde, a top Naxal leader, in an encounter with security forces.

On March 6, 2022, the Bombay High Court granted his plea to visit his mother, while also directing the Maharashtra government to consider Teltumbde's health in respect of his mode of conveyance.

On March 31, 2022, Teltumbde moved the Bombay High Court with the plea that he was wrongly charged under the UAPA and contended that the NIA had failed to directly attribute to him any particular act of violence in the actual case.

In April 2022, Teltumbde approached the NIA court seeking discharge against the charges imposed on him on the ground that the NIA had not yet produced any material before the court to prove that he was a member of the CPI (Maoist).

On November 18, 2022, a division Bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justices A.S. Gadkari and Milind N. Jadhav granted bail to Dr. Teltumbde.

According to the directions of the high court, however, the operation of the bail Order is to remain under suspension for a week, as sought by the NIA to enable it to appeal to the Supreme Court.

On November 25, 2022, the Supreme Court decided not to interfere with the high court's Order of granting bail and directed Teltumbde's release.

The prosecution in the case has filed a chargesheet exceeding 5,000 pages and intends to cross-examine at least 200 witnesses. Eleven of the 16 accused persons are presently incarcerated, having now spent between two to almost five years in judicial custody without trial.

Five co-accused persons, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Dr Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, have been released on bail. Navlakha and Raut have been granted bail but are waiting for a pending decision on the stay Orders by the Supreme Court.

Another accused, tribal rights activist and Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, passed away in judicial custody in July 2021 after contracting Covid in prison while awaiting bail on medical grounds.