Tag: Maoist links

  • Prosecutor in case against Saibaba claims he was removed three months ago

    By PTI

    NAGPUR: A special public prosecutor who represented Maharashtra Police in a case of alleged Maoist links against former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba on Friday claimed that he was removed from the case abruptly three months ago.

    The police, however, denied the claim, stating that he himself had asked to be relieved.

    Advocate P K Sathianathan had appeared as special prosecutor in the case before the Gadchiroli sessions court the during the trial, and later before the Nagpur bench of the high court when it heard the appeals filed by Saibaba and other convicts.

    The HC on Friday set aside their convictions. When contacted for reaction, Sathianathan told PTI that he was asked not to appear in the case three months ago.

    “I received a letter from Sandip Patil, Deputy Inspector General, Naxal range, Gadchiroli, instructing me to not appear in the case henceforth as a senior counsel has been appointed,” Sathianathan said.

    But DIG Patil denied this, claiming that Sathianathan was discontinued at his own request.

    To which Sathinathan said he had never asked to be relieved but only sought that a senior counsel be appointed to argue before the HC. “But the police relieved me from the case,” he said.

    READ HERE | HC acquits ex-DU prof Saibaba in Maoist links case, calls his sanction under UAPA ‘bad in law’

    NAGPUR: A special public prosecutor who represented Maharashtra Police in a case of alleged Maoist links against former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba on Friday claimed that he was removed from the case abruptly three months ago.

    The police, however, denied the claim, stating that he himself had asked to be relieved.

    Advocate P K Sathianathan had appeared as special prosecutor in the case before the Gadchiroli sessions court the during the trial, and later before the Nagpur bench of the high court when it heard the appeals filed by Saibaba and other convicts.

    The HC on Friday set aside their convictions. When contacted for reaction, Sathianathan told PTI that he was asked not to appear in the case three months ago.

    “I received a letter from Sandip Patil, Deputy Inspector General, Naxal range, Gadchiroli, instructing me to not appear in the case henceforth as a senior counsel has been appointed,” Sathianathan said.

    But DIG Patil denied this, claiming that Sathianathan was discontinued at his own request.

    To which Sathinathan said he had never asked to be relieved but only sought that a senior counsel be appointed to argue before the HC. “But the police relieved me from the case,” he said.

    READ HERE | HC acquits ex-DU prof Saibaba in Maoist links case, calls his sanction under UAPA ‘bad in law’

  • Elgar case accused activist Gonsalves suffering from dengue, lawyer tells Mumbai court

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Activist Vernon Gonsalves, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, is suffering from dengue, his lawyer on Thursday informed a special court, which is hearing his plea for temporary bail on medical grounds.

    He has been admitted to the state-run J J Hospital in Mumbai and put on oxygen support, the lawyer said.

    As per his lawyer, the 65-year-old activist was also suspected to be suffering from pneumonia.

    Gonsalves’s plea for temporary bail on medical grounds is pending before the special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court.

    During the hearing on the plea before the court on Thursday, the lawyer told the court his client is suffering from dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease.

    Hospital authorities confirmed the development. Gonsalves was arrested by the Pune police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act after raids at residences and offices of several activists in connection with the case.

    ALSO READ | Elgar case: Special NIA court refuses bail to activist Gautam Navlakha

    The police had claimed provocative speeches made at the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave on December 31, 2017, were responsible for the caste violence around Bhima-Koregaon village in Pune district the next day during an event organised to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.

    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 later taken over by NIA.

    MUMBAI: Activist Vernon Gonsalves, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, is suffering from dengue, his lawyer on Thursday informed a special court, which is hearing his plea for temporary bail on medical grounds.

    He has been admitted to the state-run J J Hospital in Mumbai and put on oxygen support, the lawyer said.

    As per his lawyer, the 65-year-old activist was also suspected to be suffering from pneumonia.

    Gonsalves’s plea for temporary bail on medical grounds is pending before the special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court.

    During the hearing on the plea before the court on Thursday, the lawyer told the court his client is suffering from dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease.

    Hospital authorities confirmed the development. Gonsalves was arrested by the Pune police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act after raids at residences and offices of several activists in connection with the case.

    ALSO READ | Elgar case: Special NIA court refuses bail to activist Gautam Navlakha

    The police had claimed provocative speeches made at the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave on December 31, 2017, were responsible for the caste violence around Bhima-Koregaon village in Pune district the next day during an event organised to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.

    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 later taken over by NIA.

  • Elgar case: HC dismisses plea of Varavara Rao & 2 other accused seeking default bail 

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by Varavara Rao and two other activists, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, seeking a review of an earlier order of the HC which refused them default bail.

    The high court said it finds it difficult to hold there was any factual error in its earlier judgement and requires a review.

    “No case for review is made out,” a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar said.

    The HC rejected the petition filed by the three accused – Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves – challenging a previous order of the high court that refused to grant them default bail in the case.

    Rao is currently out in medical bail, while the other two petitioners are in jail.

    The three accused had challenged a December 1, 2021 order passed by the bench led by Justice Shinde that granted default bail to lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, a co-accused in the case, but denied default bail to eight other accused persons, including the three petitioners.

    At that time, the HC had said the accused persons, other than Bharadwaj, had not filed their pleas seeking default bail before the lower court within the time stipulated by law.

    In their pleas, filed through advocates Sudeep Pasbola and R Satyanarayanan, the accused said the HC’s order was based on a “factual error,” as it failed to note that the lower court had rejected the default bail pleas filed by Bharadwaj, the three petitioners, and two other co-accused persons through a common order.

    Hence, if the HC, in granting bail to Bharadwaj, set aside the lower court order of November 6, 2019, the others too were entitled to relief.

    The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had opposed the plea on the ground that the accused were seeking the same prayer of default bail under the guise of review, and that it was an abuse of the process of law and sets a wrong precedent.

    The case, now being handled by the NIA, pertains to the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which according to Pune police was funded by Maoists.

    The inflammatory speeches made there led to violence at the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune the next day, the police had alleged.