Civil rights campaigner Gautam Navlakha and scholar and activist Anand Teltumbde surrendered to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday in New Delhi and Mumbai respectively for their alleged involvement in the Bhima-Koregaon riots of 2018.
Mr. Teltumbde, an engineer and IIM graduate who taught at IIT-Kharagpur, was booked for his alleged links to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and remanded to NIA custody till April 18 by a special NIA court in Mumbai.
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The NIA court in Mumbai, however, did not take up Mr. Navlakha’s remand application because of jurisdictional issues, and he will be produced before a Delhi court on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court on April 8 ordered Mr. Navlakha and Mr. Teltumbde to surrender after rejecting their anticipatory bail pleas. The case against them was transferred from the Pune police to the NIA in January. Both have been charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Earlier, in 2018, the Pune police arrested activists Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferreira, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Vernon Gonsalves and Varavara Rao, for their alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon riots.
Hope for speedy trial
Before surrende