NIA files chargesheet against 8 people in Bhima Koregaon case

The National Investigation Agency on Friday filed the third charge sheet in the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima case against eight persons including the Teltumbde brothers.

Those who have been charge-sheeted have been accused of being members or linked with the CPI (Maoist) and/or the Kabir Kala Manch.

It may be recalled two earlier charge sheets have been filed by the Pune Police against 15 persons in the case before the case was taken over by the NIA after a tussle between the Maharashtra government and the Centre.

Those named in the charge sheet include Prof Anand Teltumbe, his brother Milind Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, Stan Swamy, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap.

Among the eight, Milind, a dreaded underground Naxal, has been shown as a wanted accused.

“NIA investigation revealed that the accused persons viz. Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap and Stan Swamy conspired with other accused persons to further the ideology of terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist) and abetted violence, brought into hatred and incited disaffection towards the Government established by law and promoted enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, caste and community,” the NIA stated.

The absconding accused Milind Teltumbde organised training camps for imparting weapons training to the outlawed.

The investigation also revealed a systematic network of Maoists operating for the supply of arms and ammunition having close nexus with other banned proscribed organisation within and outside India. “The strategy and tactics adopted by Maoists to carry out a so-called urban revolution with their frontal outfits has also been revealed during the investigation. Besides this, funding activities of Maoist cadres and their sympathisers to carry out Maoist work in rural as well as urban areas came to the fore,” the NIA stated.

On 15 November 2018, the Pune police filed the first charge sheet against Surendra Gadling, Prof Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, and Mahesh Raut

On 21 February 2019, the Pune police filed a supplementary charge sheet against Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Pereira.

It may be mentioned that Stan Swamy (83) works with tribals in Jharkhand and faces health issues like Varavara Rao (81).