The Pune Police on Tuesday informed the Bombay High Court that it would not arrest writer and activist Anand Teltumbde, accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, till February 12 midnight.
A single Bench of Justice N.W. Sambre was hearing Mr. Teltumbde's petition seeking anticipatory bail in the case through senior counsel Mihir Desai.
He was arrested on February 2 at 3.30 a.m. at the Mumbai airport despite having interim protection from arrest from the Supreme Court till February 11.
Additional public prosecutor Aruna Kamat Pai appearing for the Pune Police told the court that a petition which was filed by him seeking to quash the FIR against him was dismissed by a Division Bench of the High Court and, therefore, this petition too should be dismissed.
The court, however, rejected this plea and directed her to give an undertaking as a condition for securing time to file an affidavit by February 9 opposing this petition. The matter will be heard on February 12.
Elgar Parishad
Mr. Teltumbde was booked following the Elgar Parishad on December 31, 2017, which, the police alleged, triggered violent clashes the next day at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district.
According to the police, the event was funded and supported by Maoists.
At the event, some activists made inflammatory speeches and provocative statements that contributed to the January 1 violence, the police said.
Several activists were named in the FIR. Some of them, including Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj, P. Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha, were initially put under house arrest on the directions of the Supreme Court.
All of them, except Mr. Navlakha, were recently re-arrested and taken into custody by police.
In October last, the Pune Police registered another FIR, naming eight more activists, including Mr. Teltumbde and Stan Swamy.
(With inputs from PTI )
