MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday permitted Dalit scholar and human rights defender Prof Anand Teltumbde, an undertrial in the Bhima Koregaon -Elgar Parishad case, to visit his nonagenarian mother at Chandrapur in Maharashtra on March 8, 2022.
Teltumbde's brother Milind, an alleged Maoists' central committee member was killed in an encounter on November 13, 2021, in Gadchiroli.
Anand Teltumbde had approached Bombay High Court seeking direction for interim bail after the Special NIA court refused his request on technical grounds. Before the NIA court, Teltumbde ha sought 15 days' bail citing that his presence is needed at the movement of bereavement in the family.
A division bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and GA Sanap partly allowed the application filed by Anand Teltumbde and directed him to be taken to Chandrapur by police escorts by the afternoon of March 8. The court declined permission for him to spend the night at home. Instead, he will be lodged in the closest prison. He will be allowed to meet his mother on March 10 before being escorted back to Taloja Central Prison on March 11. The bench said that he may meet only his mother and no one else, Live Law reported.
"Death is a death. He may be an accused, he may have been involved in (illegal) activities.. but then ultimately he was present applicant’s brother. There has been a loss of human life," the Court said, according to Bar and Bench.
Anand Teltumbde reportedly suffers from chronic bronchitis asthma, chronic cervical spondylitis, supraspinatus tendinopathy and prostatomegaly. His medical bail was rejected by the special court on September 21, 2021.
Another application by Teltumbe seeking regular bail was posted for a hearing on March 16.
Anand Teltumbde, a trenchant critic of the Narendra Modi government, surrendered before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in April 2020 for his alleged links with the Maoists. The NIA has booked sixteen activists of offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and accused them of attempts to overthrow the government. The NIA claims that the Elgar Parishad event organised on December 31, 2017, was responsible for the violence at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018.