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Koregaon-Bhima case: NIA says JNU, TISS students were recruited for terror

The NIA said that all the accused are ‘active members of the banned terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist) and its frontal organisations which were declared unlawful by the Union Home Ministry in 2009.

IANS | Mumbai | August 23, 2021 1:48 pm

Koregaon-Bhima case: NIA says JNU, TISS students were recruited for terror

Photo: IANS

In a shocking revelation, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said that the accused in the Koregaon-Bhima and Elgar Parishad cases had allegedly recruited students of two top Indian universities for terror activities in the country and in Maharashtra.

The NIA statement comes in the draft charge sheet in the twin cases filed against 16 arrested accused and six other absconders in the sensational cases that have rocked the Indian polity for the past four years.

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The draft charge sheet was filed before the NIA Special Court’s Special Judge D.E. Kothalikar last week after long investigations into the twin cases.

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As per the NIA, the accused had “recruited students from various universities including the two highly reputed Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai) for the commission of terrorist activities”.

They are accused of promoting the activities and ideologies of the banned outfits, mobilising people and students, training in handling sophisticated arms and explosives with the larger objective to conspire against and destabilise the government of India and Government of Maharashtra, threaten its sovereignty with large-scale violence, strike terror in the people, among other things.

For these objectives, the NIA said that the accused through the banned organisation and its frontal outfits had arranged to raise Rs 8 crore for annual supplies of M-4 (sophisticated weapons) with 4,00,000 rounds and other arms from suppliers in Manipur and the neighbouring country of Nepal to overawe and undermine the Centre and the Maharashtra governments.

The arrested accused in the cases are Sudhir P. Dhawale, Vernon S. Gonsalves (both of Mumbai), Arun T. Fereira of Thane, Rona J. Wilson and Gautam Navlakha (all of New Delhi), Surendra P. Gadling, Shoma K. Sen, Mahesh S. Raut (all of Nagpur), P. Varavara Rao of Hyderabad, Sudha Bharadwaj of Faridabad, Anand B. Teltumbde of Yavatmal, Hany Babu M. Tharayil of Trichur, Sagar Gorkhe of Ahmednagar, Ramesh Gaichor of Pune, and the late Fr. Stan Lourduswamy of Tamil Nadu, who died on July 5 in Mumbai while in custody.

The accused named as absconders are Milind Teltumbde aliases Dipak and Sahyadri of Yavatmal, Prakash Goswami aliases Navin and Ritupan Goswami of Assam, Kishan Bose aliases Prashanto of Kolkata, Mupalla Laxman Rao, alias Ganpati, Chandrashekhar, Manglu, and Deepu.

The NIA said that all the accused are ‘active members of the banned terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist) and its frontal organisations which were declared unlawful by the Union Home Ministry in 2009.

The frontal organisations listed by the NIA are Kabir Kala Manch (which organised the Elgar Parishad at Pune on December 31, 2017, the alleged fallout of which were the caste riots in Koregaon-Bhima on January 1, 2018), Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Committee, Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee, Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation, Democratic Students Union, Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan, and Revolutionary Writers Association.

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# India

The Kerala High Court, on Thursday, granted bail to M K Nasar, one of the individuals convicted by the special NIA court last year in the case of chopping the hands of Professor T J Joseph in 2010. A division bench comprising Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan and Justice P V Balakrishnan suspended Nasar’s sentence and granted conditional bail to him after considering his appeal against the NIA court’s conviction in the case Considering the prolonged detention and citing the potential for trial delays, the court suspended Nasar’s sentence and granted conditional bail, taking into account that some co-accused with similar allegations had already been released after serving shorter terms. The court noted that he had already spent nine years in jail and that delays in resolving appeals could justify suspending a convict’s prison term. It also observed that other accused in the case had received lesser sentences and had already been released after serving their terms. “The applicant has been undergoing incarceration, at the pre-conviction and post-conviction phases, for over 9 years. Furthermore, the fact that the accused facing the same allegations were earlier imposed a lesser term of imprisonment and have been released after having undergone the sentence is a factor that cannot be ignored. Additionally, the appeals filed by the NIA against the findings of the learned Sessions Judge are being considered in separate appeals, which have not yet been taken up. “There is also the likelihood of delay, as the prime accused has surrendered, and the learned Sessions Judge may have to take up the trial and dispose of it in accordance with the law and some of the original records may be required for that purpose. In view of these facts and circumstances, we are of the considered opinion that the sentence imposed on the applicant can be suspended pending the consideration of the appeal.” The court said The court, however, imposed strict conditions for Nasar’s bail. He is not supposed to provide a bond of Rs 1 lakh with two sureties, refrain from leaving the country without the court’s permission, avoid interfering with the trial or witnesses, and not commit similar offences while on bail The gruesome incident dates back to July 4, 2010, when Joseph, a professor at Newman College, Thodupuzha, was returning from Sunday mass with his family, members of the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI) attacked him, allegedly in retaliation for a question paper he set, which contained a passage that they claimed insulted Prophet Mohammed was derogatory. His right hand was chopped off in this attack. Nasar was accused of playing a critical role in the attack. Investigations revealed his involvement in recruiting gang members, assigning specific tasks, collecting funds, procuring communication devices, and maintaining communication links with key conspirators.

The Kerala High Court, on Thursday, granted bail to M K Nasar, one of the individuals convicted by the special NIA court last year in the case of chopping the hands of Professor T J Joseph in 2010.