The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a charge sheet against activists Gautam Navlakha and Stan Swamy, Maoist leader Milind Teltumbde, DU professor Hani Babu, Goa Institute of Management professor Anand Teltumbde and three artistes of Kabir Kala Manch — Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and his wife Jyoti Jagtap — in the the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.
The 10,000 page charge sheet accuses all eight of “conspiring with other accused to further the ideology of CPI-Maoist.” They been charged with IPC sections of criminal conspiracy, waging war against country, and sections 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 38, 39 and 40 under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
“Investigation revealed systematic network of Maoists operating for supply of arms and ammunitions, having proper nexus with the Maoist cadre and other banned organisations within and outside India. The strategy and tactics adopted by the Maoists to carry out urban revolution with their frontal outfits have also been revealed. Besides this, funding activities among the Maoist cadre and their sympathisers to carry out Maoist work in rural as well as urban areas came to the fore,” the NIA says in the charge sheet.
Detailing the role of the accused, NIA says Anand Teltumbde was one of the conveners of ‘Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerana Abhiyan’, an Elgar Parishad event organised on December 31, 2017, and was present at Shaniwar Wada on the day it was organised. Milind Teltumbde, secretary of Maoist Maharashtra State Committee, is Anand’s brother. He is currently Absconding.
Gautam Navlakha, as per NIA, was tasked with uniting intellectuals against the Indian government forces to defeat them both physically and otherwise. The NIA says he was also given the task of recruitment for CPI-Maoist. But in the most damaging indictment, NIA alleges Navlakha was also in touch with Pakistan’s spy agency ISI.
Hany Babu, an associate professor at Delhi University, was allegedly given the task of organising visits of foreign journalists to Maoist areas. The NIA says he was also in contact with banned terror groups in the northeast. That Babu was actively trying to secure the release of G N Saibaba, an English professor at Delhi University currently in lodged jail for being part of CPI-Maoist, has also been presented as evidence against Babu by the NIA.
Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap have been accused of actively conspiring and propagating the Maoist conspiracy throughout Maharashtra. The NIA says Kala Manch is the front organisation of CPI-Maoist.
Stan Swamy, an 83-year-old tribal rights activist from Jharkhand, has been named for communicating with Maoists and conspiracy.
The NIA officials said all the named accused were providing “funding, leadership, intellectual support to Maoists in urban pockets.”
“This case is similar to the Hurriyat funding case that NIA investigated. It tells us who is channeling the Maoist movement in urban centres, helping them in whatever way possible,” a senior officer told News18.
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