The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested an associate professor of Delhi University for allegedly promoting “Naxal activities and Maoist ideology” in a case pertaining to the Bhima Koregaon riots of 2018.
Associate Professor Hany Babu M.T, 54, a resident of Noida in Uttar Pradesh teaches at the English Department of the Delhi University. He has been questioned at length by NIA in Mumbai for the past four days.
The case was transferred from the Pune police to the NIA in January. The accused has been arrested under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
NIA said in a statement the case arose out of a case registered in Pune regarding inciting people and giving provocative speeches during Elgar Parishad organized by the activists of Kabir Kala Manch at Shaniwarwada, Pune on December 31, 2017 which “promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence resulting in loss of life & property and State-wide agitation in Maharashtra”.
“During investigation, it was revealed that senior leaders of CPI (Maoist), an organisation banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, were in contact with the organizers of Elgar Parishad as well as the accused arrested in the case to spread the ideology of Maoism/Naxalism and encourage unlawful activities,” the agency said.
The Pune Police filed a chargesheet and a supplementary chargesheet in this case on November 15, 2018 and February 21, 2019 respectively.
NIA took up the investigation of the case on January 24 this year and in April arrested civil rights campaigner Gautam Navlakha and Dalit scholar and acivist Dr. Anand Teltumbde, who taught at IIT Kharagpur. The duo surrendered to the NIA after a Supreme Court bench rejected their anticipatory bail pleas.
“During further investigation, it was revealed that accused Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator with other arrested accused,” the NIA said.
The accused will be produced before the NIA Special Court at Mumbai on Wednesday and his police custody will be sought for custodial interrogation.
Earlier, in 2018, the Pune police arrested activists Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferreira, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Vernon Gonsalves and Varavara Rao, for their alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon riots.
