The NIA has claimed to have found direct links between those arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case and the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). The agency made the claims in its charge sheet that runs more than 10,000 pages. It was filed before a Mumbai special court on October 9. This is the first chargesheet filed by the NIA, which took over the investigation in January. The Pune Police had earlier filed two chargesheets in connection with the Elgar Parishad case against the activists. Those named in the chargesheet are Anand Teltumbde, Milind Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, three members of Kabir Kala Manch and Stan Swamy.

A special court in Mumbai has rejected the interim bail plea of 83-year-old activist Father Stan Swamy in the Elgar Parishad case. Swamy’s lawyer Sharif Shaikh submitted to the court that Swamy is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, and had undergone surgery prior to his arrest. Opposing the argument in the plea, NIA said that Swamy was “trying to take undue benefits” of COVID-19 pandemic. The NIA has claimed in its chargesheet that the accused persons conspired against other co-accused persons and that they furthered the ideology of the Naxal organization CPI (Maoist).

In a statement given before his arrest, Swamy had said that he was being targeted for expressing dissent and working for tribal rights, including the wrongful arrest of young adivasis in Jharkhand.  NIA has also recorded statements of witnesses who submitted that Babu and another accused Rona Wilson were “instrumental in arranging meetings and funds in support of G N Saibaba” who has been convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Regarding the three Kabir Kala Manch members, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap, the chargesheet claims that Milind used to discuss with them about the Elgar Parishad event held at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017. It alleges that with the help of these members and others, including social workers, teachers, advocates, doctors, the event’s platform was to be used for spreading Maoist ideology.

Several activists have been accused of making inflammatory speeches at the Elgar Parishad conclave held at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which as the authorities claimed had triggered violence at Bhima-Koregaon war memorial the next day. Eight people who have been named in the NIA chargesheet are former IIT professor Anand Teltumbde, his brother Milind Teltumbde, activist-journalist Gautam Navlakha, Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu, three members of the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch and Jesuit priest and human rights activist Stan Swamy. Of them, Milind Teltumbde has been named as an absconding accused and top operative of CPI (Maoist) in the chargesheet.

Anand Teltumbde, who taught at IIT-Kharagpur and later at the Goa Institute of Management before his arrest on April 14, is also alleged to have “inspired” his younger brother, Milind Teltumbde, who has been named in the chargesheet as an absconding accused and a top operative of CPI (Maoist).

The NIA chargesheet alleges, “Anand Teltumbde used to attend international conferences under the guise of his academic visits abroad viz Philippines, Peru, Turkey, and other countries and used to bring Maoist literature and videos (in pen drive/ memory cards) related to their ideology, tactics, weapons used by them, period of attacks, planning of sudden attacks in spite of routine Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign during Naxal weeks, extension of zones and increasing recruitment for CPI (Maoist) organization”.

In an eight-page statement, recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a witness has claimed that Milind had lived in Dhammadeep Nagar, situated in Itabhatti Chowk in Nagpur. During this stay, the witness has also claimed that Milind had tried to exchange a large cache of old currency, worth Rs 50 lakh, following the sudden demonetization drive undertaken by the Central government in 2016. Similar claims about the exchange of currency have also been made by several other witnesses in the earlier parts of the chargesheet that was filed by the Pune police, which was investigating the case until last December.

One of the witnesses, whose statement has been recorded before a magistrate, had claimed that Anand Teltumbde was keen on “reinventing Dalit militancy”. The NIA has also attached an email, allegedly written by Anand to Rona Wilson, claiming that his speech was “wilfully distorted”. The email was written soon after the said event organized by the now-banned Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) in Hyderabad on April 22-23, 2013.

The National Investigation Agency claims that the violence against Dalits assembled at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018, was triggered by incitement through speeches at the event. A separate FIR filed by the Pune police on January 2 has named Hindutva leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide, for alleged incitement leading to violence.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.