MUMBAI: A special court on Wednesday granted NIA seven-day custody of Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu MT (54) in Elgar Parishad case. Arrested on Tuesday, Babu will be in custody till August 4. He is the 12th accused to be taken into custody in the case. NIA sought police custody for 10 days.
Special judge A T Wankhede said he looking at the nature of offences and allegations against Babu, demand of police custody remand by investigating officer was well-founded. “Allegations against the accused are serious. The accused allegedly has connections and links with banned CPI-M. The investigating officer wants to confront him with facts established from other accused,” the court said.
Babu was produced in court at 12.20pm. NIA submitted that Babu’s medical examination was conducted and he had not shown symptoms of Covid-19.
Special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty told court that NIA had to confront Babu with facts revealed during investigations from arrested accused. He submitted that Babu was linked to CPI-M. The prosecution said during investigations, incriminating letters were recovered.
Defence advocate R Sathyanarayanan, assisted by advocates Arif Siddiqui and Nilesh Ukey, opposed the plea. The defence submitted that Babu had been interrogated by NIA for four to five days before arrest. They said further custodial interrogation was not required.
Federation of Central Universities Teachers’ Association supported Babu and condemned his arrest. The arrest was part of an attempt to criminalize dissent, as was seen in with arrests of students who participated in anti-CAA protests, and portended ominous times ahead for the academic community, it said. “It was extremely unfortunate that academic censorship and criminal vitiation of academic spaces stared us in the face and we rise in complete protest and rage,” it said.
Many academics see the arrest as a continuing assault by the central government on academic intelligentsia and social activists in the country, who have shown courage to express dissent, a report from Kochi said.
Special judge A T Wankhede said he looking at the nature of offences and allegations against Babu, demand of police custody remand by investigating officer was well-founded. “Allegations against the accused are serious. The accused allegedly has connections and links with banned CPI-M. The investigating officer wants to confront him with facts established from other accused,” the court said.
Babu was produced in court at 12.20pm. NIA submitted that Babu’s medical examination was conducted and he had not shown symptoms of Covid-19.
Special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty told court that NIA had to confront Babu with facts revealed during investigations from arrested accused. He submitted that Babu was linked to CPI-M. The prosecution said during investigations, incriminating letters were recovered.
Defence advocate R Sathyanarayanan, assisted by advocates Arif Siddiqui and Nilesh Ukey, opposed the plea. The defence submitted that Babu had been interrogated by NIA for four to five days before arrest. They said further custodial interrogation was not required.
Federation of Central Universities Teachers’ Association supported Babu and condemned his arrest. The arrest was part of an attempt to criminalize dissent, as was seen in with arrests of students who participated in anti-CAA protests, and portended ominous times ahead for the academic community, it said. “It was extremely unfortunate that academic censorship and criminal vitiation of academic spaces stared us in the face and we rise in complete protest and rage,” it said.
Many academics see the arrest as a continuing assault by the central government on academic intelligentsia and social activists in the country, who have shown courage to express dissent, a report from Kochi said.
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