Tag: Taloja jail

  • Court allows Anand Teltumbde’s plea to call mother for five minutes after brother’s encounter killing

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: A special NIA court here has allowed activist Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to have a telephonic conversation with his mother for five minutes in the wake of the death of his brother Milind Teltumbde, a top Naxal leader, in an encounter with security forces last week.

    Anand Teltumbde is currently lodged in Taloja jail following his arrest in the Elgar Parishad case in April 2020.

    The court on Tuesday allowed his plea in which he sought a telephonic conversation with his mother.

    The detailed order was made available on Wednesday.

    In his plea, Teltumbde said his 90-year-old mother is in a state of shock and bereavement after Milind’s demise and therefore he may be permitted a telephone call.

    His plea was allowed by special court’s judge D E Kothalikar.

    “The superintendent Taloja Central Prison shall allow accused No.10 (Teltumbde) to make phone calls to his mother for 5 minutes by keeping the phone on speaker mode,” the court said.

    The superintendent shall get it confirmed that the person speaking from the other side is mother of the accused only, it added.

    Anand Teltumbde and some other activists were initially booked by the Pune police after violence erupted at Koregaon Bhima near Pune, a day after the Elgar Parishad conclave was held in the city on December 31, 2017.

    Inflammatory speeches and provocative statements made at the conclave triggered the violence at Koregaon Bhima the next day, the police had alleged.

    According to the police, the event was “backed” by Maoists.

    The NIA later took over the probe into the case.

    Milind Teltumbde died in Saturday’s encounter with security forces that killed 26 rebels in Gadchiroli district of eastern Maharashtra.

    He was carrying a reward of Rs 50 lakh on his head for his alleged involvement in violent activities against the state.

  • ED allowed to record jailed activist Gautam Navlakha’s statement in case against news portal

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: A special NIA court here on Wednesday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to record a statement of activist Gautam Navlakha, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, in its money laundering probe against ‘Newsclick’, a news website.

    Navlakha is currently lodged in Taloja Jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai. The ED had filed an application before the special National Investigation Agency court seeking to record his statement in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act case filed against the website.

    Judge DE Kothalikar granted the agency’s plea. Following a First Information Report (FIR) registered by Delhi Police against Newsclick, the ED registered a money laundering case against the portal with regard to `suspicious’ foreign funding.

    In February this year, the ED raided the website’s office and properties of its promoters in Delhi. Navlakha is among several activists arrested in connection with Elgar Parishad, a conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017.

    Pune Police had claimed that inflammatory speeches at the event triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial, and the conclave had been backed by Maoists. The case was later taken over by the NIA.

  • ‘Shift jailed Stan Swamy to hospital’: Jharkhand rights group to Maharashtra govt

    By Express News Service
    RANCHI: Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM), a network of activists and eminent citizens, has demanded that Stan Swamy, currently lodged in Taloja jail in Mumbai, be shifted to a hospital for the proper medical treatment.

    Writing a letter to Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil, JJM pleaded that looking at his health conditions and rising Covid cases in Taloja jail, Stan should be shifted immediately to a hospital.

    The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested 84-year-old Jesuit priest Stan Swamy in Bhima Koregaon case on October 8, in a case related to the violence which erupted at an event to mark the 100 years of the Bhima-Koregaon battle on January 1 in 2018, leaving one dead and several others injured.

    The letter further added that Stan, who is a Parkinson’s disease patient with severe tremors in both hands, is currently having fever and cough. He was given antibiotics by the Ayurvedic doctors but it did not help him much.

    “Stan Swamy finds it difficult to drinking from a glass, taking bath and washing clothes on his own. He also has serious hearing problem and needs hearing aid for both ears. He was also operated twice for hernia in the recent past,” the letter said.

    “On May 14, Stan called up his colleague and shared that he was unwell. For the first time since his arrest, he said that he was feeling very weak. He is not able to speak even over phone and his condition has to be described by others,” stated the letter written to the Maharashtra government. added.

    Stan, according to JJM, has not even received first shot of Covid vaccine and is yet to be tested for the virus. Therefore, there is an urgent need to shift Swamy to a good hospital, stated the letter.

    The JJM further said it would be really helpful if he is shifted to the Holy Family Hospital or Holy Spirit Hospital where his Jesuit colleagues can take care of him. Stan is an elderly and ailing person, with limited mobility and no history of violence against others, the JMM said in the letter.

    A copy of the letter has also been sent to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.