The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a National Investigation Agency (NIA) appeal against a decision of the Bombay High Court to grant bail to academician Anand Teltumbde in the Bhima Koregaon case.
“We will not interfere,” a Bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli said shortly after a hearing which continued through the lunch break.
Mr. Teltumbde is scheduled to be released from prison later in the day. The High Court had on November 18 given the NIA a week’s time to contest its bail order in the Supreme Court.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, for NIA, argued that Mr. Teltumbde was “actively involved” in Maoist activities which extended to transfer of funds, planning, propagation and recruitment. She referred to several electronic documents to buttress her claim. She said that Mr. Teltumbde had participated in various “Maoist conferences”.
“He is in custody till today,” Ms. Bhati submitted. She urged the court to issue notice and stay the order.
For Mr. Teltumbde, senior advocate Kapil Sibal countered that “none of the documents shown or attributed to me (Teltumbde) are recovered from me”.
He said three emails allegedly traced to his account were “all about fact-finding”.
“These are academicians… He is the author of a theoretical treaty on ‘neo-liberal globalisation versus Dalit rights’. Basically that is his subject. Wherever there is an issue of Dalits, he is out there as an academician to deal with it,” Mr. Sibal submitted.
Dismissing the appeal, the court however said that the observations made by the High Court would not be taken as “conclusive final findings in all proceedings”.
When Mr. Sibal asked the Bench to add a line in the order to ensure Mr. Teltumbde’s release without delay, Ms. Bhati said the High Court decision has already covered the issue. “It will be done,” Ms. Bhati assured.
The High Court had granted bail to Mr. Teltumbde while noting that the only prima facie case made out against him related to alleged association with a terror outfit and support given to it, for which the maximum punishment was imprisonment upto a period of 10 years.
The High Court had noted that Mr. Teltumbde had already spent more than two years in jail.
The High Court, however, had stayed its order for a week so that NIA could approach the Supreme Court.
