Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case: NIA arrests DU professor Hany Babu

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 28

National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday said it had arrested accused Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil, an associate professor with the University of Delhi, in connection with the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.

Hany Babu (54), son of Kunhu Mohammad, is a resident of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, said the probe agency.

Officials in the investigative agency said, Hany Babu, a professor in English at the DU, would be produced before the NIA Special Court in Mumbai on Wednesday and police remand would be sought for his custodial interrogation.

The NIA officials alleged that Hany Babu was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator in the case along with the other arrested accused.

They said the case pertains to inciting people and giving provocative speeches during Elgar Parishad organised by the activists of Kabir Kala Manch at Shaniwarwada, Pune, on December 31, 2017, which promoted enmity between various caste groups, followed by large scale violence resulting in loss of life and property and state-wide agitation in Maharashtra.

During investigation by the state police, it was revealed that senior leaders of CPI (Maoist), an organisation banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, were allegedly in contact with the organisers of Elgar Parishad, the agency said, adding that the accused arrested in the case also allegedly indulged in spreading Maoism or Naxalism and encouraging unlawful activities.

The Pune Police filed the chargesheet in the case on November 15, 2018 and supplemented it with another chargesheet on February 21, last year.

The NIA took up the investigation in the case on January 24 this year and arrested accused Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha on April 14, the agency officials said, adding that further investigation was on.