Elgar Parishad case: Bombay High Court grants bail to accused Anand Teltumbde

The Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to scholar-activist Anand Teltumbde, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

The high court, however, stayed its order for a week so that the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the prosecuting agency, can approach the Supreme Court. This means that Teltumbde will not be able to walk out of jail till then.

A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and M N Jadhav allowed the bail plea filed by 73-year-old Teltumbde, who has been in jail since his arrest in the case in April 2020.

The court granted him bail on a surety of Rs one lakh.

The NIA sought the court to stay its order for one week so that it can appeal in Supreme Court. The bench accepted this and stayed its order for a week.

Teltumbde, who is presently lodged at the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai, had moved the high court last year after a special court refused to grant him bail.

In his plea, Teltumbde had claimed that he was never present at the December 31, 2017 Elgar Parishad event held in Pune nor made any provocative speeches.

The prosecution's case is that provocative and inflammatory speeches were made at the event that was allegedly backed by banned terror outfit CPI (Maoist), which later led to violence at Koregaon Bhima village near Pune.

Teltumbde is the third accused in the case to be granted bail. Poet Varavara Rao is out on a medical bail and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj is out on regular bail.