Elgaar Parishad case: Pune court order on NIA’s plea on Feb. 14

Special Public Prosecutor argued against the case being transferred to the NIA court in Mumbai and submitted that the NIA’s plea was “legally untenable”.

A special court dealing with offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on Friday reserved its order on the application filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking transfer of the Elgaar Parishad case materials to the special NIA court in Mumbai.

Following the arguments of counsel for the Pune Police, Additional Sessions Judge (special) S.R. Navandar said he would pronounce the order on February 14.

Earlier, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar, representing the Pune Police, argued against the case being transferred to the NIA court in Mumbai and submitted that the NIA’s plea was “legally untenable”.

Advocate Pawar noted that the alleged offence had been committed within the jurisdiction of the Pune court and argued that the State had established a special court in Pune that was capable of dealing with the said offences under the NIA Act.

“The investigation authority [the Pune Police] have already completed their probe and have filed the main as well as the supplementary charge sheets in the case,” she said, adding that the city police had collected ample evidence against the nine arrested activists in the case as well as against academic-writer Anand Teltumbde and activist Gautam Navlakha.

On Thursday, counsels for the nine activists arrested in the case told the court that only the Bombay High Court had the power to transfer the case to the NIA court in Mumbai.

The Pune police’s response to the NIA’s application underscored the tug-of-war that has erupted between the Centre and the State governments following the regime change in Maharashtra with the formation of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

While the Pune Police had zealously prosecuted the Elgaar Parishad case and arrested noted intellectuals and activists when the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government was in power in the State, the present now seems to be procrastinating in handing over the case records to the NIA.

Incidentally, the FIR filed by the NIA does not include the sections pertaining to sedition invoked by the Pune Police against the accused activists like sections 121 (waging war against government of India) and 121A (conspiracy to commit offence under 121) of the Indian Penal Code.

The Centre’s decision to abruptly transfer the case to the NIA followed reports of the MVA government mulling the formation of a special investigation team to probe the investigation conducted by the Pune Police in case.

Among those arrested in the case include poet-activist P. Varavara Rao, noted trade unionist Sudha Bharadwaj, activists Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut, advocate Surendra Gadling, Prof. Shoma Sen and writer-publisher Sudhir Dhawale — all of whom are presently lodged in Pune’s Yerwada prison.

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