Bhima Koregaon: Bombay HC refuses to interfere with the investigation, says conspiracy is deep rooted

Observing that “the conspiracy is deep-rooted”, the Bombay High Court has dismissed the plea of one of the accused, Anand Teltumbde, seeking to quash the proceedings against him in the FIR registered pursuant to the Bhima Koregaon incident..The Judgement was delivered by Justices Sarang V Kotwal and BP Dharmadhikari. .The High Court refused to interfere with the investigation in the case against the Petitioner and observed that the “conspiracy is deep-rooted” and has “serious repercussions”..“..considering the rival submissions and the material produced before us, we are of the opinion that this is not a case where there is no incriminating material against the Petitioner. It is also not possible to record a finding that implicating the Petitioner as one of accused is a malafide exercise of powers on the part of Investigating Agency. The offence is serious. The conspiracy is deep-rooted and has extremely serious repercussions. The Investigating Agency must be allowed to have sufficient opportunity to collect evidence. The investigation is in progress.”, it recorded..On January 08, 2018, an FIR was registered with Vishrambaug Police Station, Pune after the Bhima Koregaon incident, for offences punishable under Sections 153A, 505(1)(b) and 117 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Subsequently, Sections 13, 16, 17, 18, 18(B), 20, 38 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 were added to the registered offence. During the course of the investigation, several names were added as accused as well as suspects. The Petitioner was arraigned as one of the accused by the end of August 2018..To support its decision to implicate the Petitioner, the Investigating Officer filed an Affidavit before the High Court, mentioning the progress of investigation in a sealed envelope..The Court records that the Investigating Agency has heavily relied on the material seized during the raid conducted on various premises connected with different accused. According to the Investigating Officer, the Court records, the accused persons named in the FIR were not only the active members of the banned organization Communist Party of India (Maoists) but “they took active part in executing the sinister design of destabilizing the society“. Therefore, the scope of investigation in the FIR has been widened and is not restricted to the BhimaKoregaon incident..Before the High Court, the Petitioner argued that he was innocent and that he was being falsely implicated as there was no incriminating material against him. He also claimed that he was not even present at the site of the program organized by Elgar Parishad. Doubting the credibility of the documents collected by the Investigating Agency, the Petitioner also argued that the letters and other documents so collected could not be said to be referring to the Petitioner..Rejecting all arguments put forth by the Petitioner, the Court stated that the contents of these documents reveal “a definite design to commit acts which fall under various sections of UAPA”..It further stated that the Petitioner’s connection with the banned organization CPI (M) would also have to be seen in the light of the material collected by the Investigating Agency..The Court thus refused to quash and set aside the proceedings against the Petitioner at this stage, stating,.“Considering the nature and magnitude of the conspiracy, the Investigating Agency is required to be given sufficient opportunity to unearth the evidence against the accused. We are satisfied that at this stage there is sufficient material against the Petitioner with the Investigating Agency and the allegations against him are not baseless.“.It thus held,.“We do not find that this is a case which requires our interference at this stage. With the result, the present Criminal Writ Petition is dismissed.“.The Petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Mihir Desai along with Advocates Vijay Hiremath and Devyani Kulkarni..State was represented by Additional Public Prosecutor A. S. Pai..Read the Judgement: