MUMBAI: A witness in the Elgar Parishad case has said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that in a meeting, activist and academic Anand Teltumbde had made a statement about “reinventing Dalit militancy” as well as a “revolutionary resurgence” under Maoist leadership. The witness statement is part of the supplementary charge sheet presented before the special NIA cut recently. The charge sheet has six statements made by witnesses, whose identities have been truncated.
Another witness claimed that Teltumbde used to attend international conferences in countries like the Philippines, Peru, and Turkey under the guise of academic visits and bring back Maoist literature and videos in digital form. The witness said the videos and literature were shown to members of the CPI (Maoist), a banned organization, during training and classes.
‘Varavara called for a revolution’
The charge sheet said that P Varavara Rao advocated joining for the revolution under the banner of the CPI (Maoist) while a witness claimed that Shoma Sen was persuading women to join the Maoists. Hany Babu and Rona Wilson had instilled Maoist sympathies in Delhi students, another witness said.
‘Teltumbdes wanted Naxal movement in urban areas’
Anand Teltumbde was arrested on April 14 and is among eight against whom the NIA filed a supplemental charge sheet on October 9. The case concerns the Elgar Parishad meeting that was called on December 31, 2017, which allegedly resulted in caste clashes that broke out. at Bhima Koregaon near Pune on January 1, 2018.
The witness also claimed that the defendant Milind Teltumbde, a suspected senior CPI (Maoist) member on the run, used to discuss plans to expand the Naxal movement in urban areas with his brother, Anand Teltumbde. “Milind used to meet with Anand for guidance in promoting the CPI (Maoist) movement in the jungle and in urban areas,” the charge sheet read. The charge sheet also said that Milind used to say that his older brother had inspired him to join the movement.
The charge sheet says that among the “urban naxals” the defendants Arun Ferreira, the members of the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch Ramesh Gaichor, Sagar Gorkhe and Jyoti Jagtap, Surendra Gadling, Vernon Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha, P Varavara Rao, Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, and Mahesh Raut.
A third witness said that he had “heard” that former imprisoned JNU student, Umar Khalid, was a “member of the Urban Party” and was working with other members in Delhi to promote his agenda. The witness said that Khalid was among those who had given speeches at Elgar Parishad on December 31, 2017.
Another witness described the activist Navlakha as a Maoist sympathizer. “Gautam Navlakha has written books on Maoists, visited the jungles together with the Swedish writer (who is not mentioned in the statement) and met with Maoist leaders. Navlakha has participated in the GN Saibaba Liberation Defense Committee meeting. Navlakha always talks about leftist politics. Navlakha is a good friend of Varavara Rao, ”the charge sheet read.
In addition, he claimed that Navlakha was involved in civil rights groups. Referring to the recently arrested Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, a witness allegedly told the NIA that since party members were arrested in various parts of the country and the party was faceless, the 83-year-old man years he was given the “responsibility”, since he was against the government. “Sant (as mentioned in the statement) Swamy has his own identity … his own NGO in Jharkhand,” the charge sheet read.
.
