Elgar Parishad case: Dalit scholar released after court terms arrest illegal

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, February 2

Hours after he was picked up from Mumbai airport during the early hours of Saturday, a Pune court released academician and Dalit scholar Anand Teltumbde from police custody terming his arrest illegal.

Teltumbde was picked up by a team of Pune police personnel from Mumbai airport at 3.30 am and taken to Pune where he was produced before UAPA special judge Kishore D Vadane. Teltumbde's s lawyer Rohan Nadar told the court that Pune Police was in contempt of the Supreme Court's order which had granted him protection from arrest till February 11.

Prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar however argued that the four-week protection granted by the top court to seek remedy from the local court was extinguished the day the UAPA court denied his plea seeking anticipatory bail.

 Judge Vadane had rejected Teltumbde's plea on Friday.

Dr Teltumbde's lawyer had however said he would be moving the high court challenging his anticipatory bail.

The UAPA court however conceded to the defence lawyer's plea and released Teltumbde immediately.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, Teltumbde said the arrest was an attempt to malign his image. "It is embarrassing for a person of international stature like me," he told reporters.

Teltumbde is among several persons accused of being part of the Elgar Parishad in Pune where Dalit participants were attacked by upper-caste villagers last year.

Several human rights organisations in India and abroad had petitioned the Indian government not to arrest the well known Dalit scholar who is also an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management.

Teltumbde along with nine other rights activists and lawyers are currently lodged in jails under various charges, including plotting the assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and for inciting the violence in Bhima Koregaon last year.

Others arrested in the case include lawyers Surendra Gadling, Arun Ferrieira and Sudha Bharadwaj, activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut, retired Nagpur professor Soma Sen and Telugu poet Vara Vara Rao.