Elgaar Parishad case: HC allows Anand Teltumbde to meet his mother

The court noted in its order, “The applicant is allowed to meet his mother in Chandrapur on March 8 and 9. To achieve the purpose of meeting his mother, he shall be taken with police escort with appropriate Bandobast in a manner so as to reach Chandrapur by morning or afternoon of March 8. Thereafter the applicant shall leave Chandrapur along with police escort on March 10 at appropriate time and if some time is available before leaving, the applicant shall be permitted to meet his mother on March 10 if possible. The applicant shall be brought back to Taloja jail under police escort on March 11. The applicant shall be allowed to stay in Chandrapur. Travelling expenses of applicant and stay at Chandrapur shall be borne by applicant.”

It further said that the expenses of police escort and other necessary expenses shall be borne by the Maharashtra government. “It is made clear that this application has been allowed only for him to meet his mother at her house, and hence no other person except his mother is permitted to be met,” the High Court added.

The court’s order was passed in Anand’s temporary bail plea, which was filed after his brother’s death. Milind was among the Maoists killed in the November 13, 2021 encounter with security personnel in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district.

Anand has been lodged at the Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai since the NIA arrested him in the Elgaar Parishad case in April, 2020.

A division bench of Justices Sunil B Shukre and Govinda A Sanap was hearing Anand’s plea through senior counsel Mihir Desai, who argued that the trial court had rejected Anand’s application on the ground that his substantive/regular bail plea was pending before the High Court, before which he can seek relief for temporary bail as well.

The NIA had filed an affidavit opposing the plea. On Wednesday, advocate Sandesh Patil for NIA asked the bench to let Anand go and meet his mother and come back with an escort but the court should not allow the request for bail for a few days. “The seriousness is that who has died was a wanted accused who died in an ambush,” the NIA lawyer said.

After Additional Public Prosecutor Sangeeta Shinde appearing for the state prison authority submitted that the escort charges have to be borne by the accused based on the “seriousness of charges”, the bench reminded that co-accused Sudha Bharadwaj, in August 2019, was allowed to visit home to attend her father’s final rights in Bangalore for two days and the authorities did bear the escort charges.

“Death is death. He (Milind Teltumbde) may be an accused, he may have been involved in activities…but then ultimately he was the present applicant’s brother. There has been a loss of human life,” the bench orally remarked.

The bench passed an order noting that Anand “is yearning to meet his mother at Chandrapur, to offer her moral support and to perform his duty as a brother”.

“This application calls for steps and appropriate response from the court. We partly allow the application with a view to enable the applicant to meet his mother in Chandrapur,” the court noted.

Meanwhile, the court also issued a notice to the Attorney General of India in another plea by Anand challenging the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The writ petition by Anand challenged the constitutional validity of Section 43D (5) of the UAPA that creates “obstacle” for an accused to be granted bail and said that same was violative of Articles 14 (equality before law) and 21 (right to life) of the Constitution. He has sought setting aside and quashing the terminology “all front organization” from the first Schedule of the UAPA. The High Court will hear Anand’s writ petition after four weeks.