Mumbai: The Union government told the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to unearth a larger pan-India conspiracy and had nothing to do with the change in government in Maharashtra.
The Union government recently submitted its affidavit in the HC in response to a petition filed by human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling and activist Sudhir Dhawale, both arrested in the case, challenging the January 2020 decision to transfer the probe in the case from Pune police to the NIA.
The petition, filed through advocate S B Talekar last year, alleged the case was transferred by the Centre after the BJP lost power in Maharashtra and, hence, the decision was politically motivated.
It is stoutly denied that the transfer of the investigation was actuated by the change in government. Change in government has nothing to do with the transfer of investigation to NIA, an affidavit filed by the Under Secretary of the Counter-Terrorism and Counter Radicalisation division of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said. It further said the petition was malafide and vexatious and was an attempt by the accused to thwart investigation in the case.
It was revealed that senior leaders of CPI (Maoist), which is a prescribed terrorist organization, were in contact with organizers of the Elgar Parishad to spread the ideology of Maoism/Naxalism and encourage unlawful activities, the affidavit said, adding that the offense became abnormally grave and spread not only to Pune district but to many regions of India and, hence, a thorough investigation was necessary to unearth the large pan-India conspiracy hatched by the accused.
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