Prima facie case against Anand Teltumbde, can’t grant bail: Court

There is a “prima facie” case against academic Anand Teltumbde under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a special court observed in its detailed order rejecting the bail plea of the Dalit activist arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.

While the court had rejected the bail plea on Monday, the detailed order was posted on its website on Friday.

“Upon perusal of the documents, including the exchange of emails and the statements of the witnesses relied upon by the prosecution, and after cross-checking the truthfulness of the allegations made against the applicant, this court does not find that the accusations are inherently improbable or wholly unbelievable,” special judge Dinesh Kothalikar observed in his order.


“In view of this law and the rider provided under Section 43D5 of the UAP Act, since this court has already concluded that the allegations made against the applicant are prima facie true, this court conclude that the applicant has failed to make out a case for grant of bail.” The National Investigation Agency, which took over the Elgar Parishad case from the Pune police, had arrested Teltumbde under UAPA in August last year.One of his co-accused, octogenarian tribal rights activist and Jesuit priest Stan Swamy had passed away on July 5, just before the Bombay High Court was to hear his bail application.

Opposing Teltumbde’s bail plea, NIA contended that he is “an active member of Communist Party of India (Maoist) and deeply involved in furtherance of agenda of CPI (Maoist)”. They also alleged that he was in touch with Milind Teltumbde (his brother), an absconding accused in the case and alleged operative of the banned organisation and had “secret meetings” with him.