Anand Teltumbde, Elgar Parishad case accused, seeks HC nod for foreign travel

Mumbai, Mar 19 (PTI) Writer and activist Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, has moved the Bombay High Court seeking permission to travel abroad in April and May for academic purposes.

A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata on Wednesday directed the National Investigation Agency, the prosecuting agency, to submit its reply, and posted the hearing to April 2.

Teltumbde, who is out on bail, said in his petition that he has been invited to the Netherlands and United Kingdom to deliver lectures on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

He was a leading authority on Ambedkar, the Dalit movement, caste, public policy and democratic rights in India, the plea claimed.

The University of Amsterdam has selected Teltumbde for a four-week program in April to attend seminars, give lectures and conduct classes with Ph.D. candidates, it said.

He has also been invited by Leiden University in the Netherlands to deliver a lecture on April 16. Further, Nottingham Trent University in the UK has also invited him as a scholar-in-residence for the first two weeks in May, Teltumbde said.

The plea also mentioned invitations by three more universities in the UK, including the University of Oxford.

The HC should order release of his passport so that he could complete visa formalities, it said.

On November 18, 2022, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Teltumbde. The NIA appealed against the relief but the Supreme Court decided not to interfere with the HC order. He had already surrendered his passport to the lower court.

The case against Teltumbde and more than a dozen other activists relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial.

Pune Police, who probed the case before it was transferred to the NIA, claimed the conclave was backed by the Maoists. PTI