The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has requested a special court in Mumbai to seize the passports of Anand Teltumbde, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut, Gautam Navlakha, and Hany Babu, who are the five individuals accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
The application was filed by the Special Public Prosecutor under section 51 of the UA (P) Act, seeking to impound the passports of the accused until further notice in the interest of ongoing investigations, with the specific duration to be determined by the court.
Following this, the special NIA court has instructed the accused to present their responses. Section 51 pertains to the impounding of passports of individuals charged under the Act, stipulating that the passport of a person accused of an offense under the Act shall be considered impounded for a period determined by the court.
While Teltumbde, Navlakha, and Wilson are currently out on bail, Raut was granted bail by the Bombay High Court, which was later stayed following NIA’s request, pending appeal at the Supreme Court. Raut was recently granted interim medical bail for six weeks by the top court.
Hany Babu, a former Delhi University professor, is awaiting a decision on his bail plea from the High Court, following a directive from the Supreme Court to seek bail from either the High Court or a trial court.
In a related development, Teltumbde had sought permission to travel abroad for lecture engagements but is yet to receive approval. The Elgar Parishad case involved the arrest of 16 individuals following an event at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on the eve of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima in December 2017, which led to caste-related clashes the next day at the Bhimakoregaon war memorial in rural Pune.
Initially an FIR in Pune, the case evolved into a UAPA investigation under the NIA’s jurisdiction.