Mumbai: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court here has permitted activist Anand Teltumbde and five others, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case, to have a telephonic conversation with family members for three minutes. The accused are currently in judicial custody and lodged at Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai.
Their plea for making telephonic calls was allowed by special court judge Rajesh J Katariya on Friday. The details were made available on Saturday. The accused are permitted to have a telephonic conversation with their family members for three minutes keeping the speaker on in the presence of escorts, the court said. In a related development, two of the accused activists told the court on Friday that the prosecution had not supplied cloned copies of the electronic devices, seized from them, as directed earlier by the court.
They submitted that the matter is being delayed as copies are not supplied to them. The special public prosecutor submitted that the procedure for preparing clone copies is going on. The court said the prosecution should ensure the clone copies are supplied to the accused persons at the earliest. The concerned officer shall remain present before this court with information on how much time would be required for supplying the clone copies to all the accused, it said.
The court also said that medical treatment provided to the accused Vernon Gonsalves shall continue as per the medical advice from state-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai and medical reports shall be filed on record. The activist has been admitted to the hospital since September 8 where he is undergoing treatment for dengue. Another accused activist Sudhir Dhavale has filed an application in the court, seeking action against the prison medical officer and the jail authorities for allegedly not providing medical attention to him.
An application was also filed before the court by an accused for the initiation of a contempt proceeding against prison authorities. The court has directed the prosecution to file its say on all the pleas. The court is likely to begin hearing the discharge pleas filed by the accused on September 23. The Elgar case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the city's outskirts.
One person was killed and several others were injured in the violence. The case, in which over a dozen activists and academicians have been named accused, was initially probed by the Pune police before it was taken over by the NIA. PTI
