Bhima Koregaon: Maharashtra challenges Anand Teltumbde release order in Supreme Court

The State of Maharashtra has approached the Supreme Court challenging the order of the Pune Sessions Court that had directed the Pune Police to release activist Anand Teltumbde in February this year..Anand Teltumbde was one of the several people arrested by the Pune Police in relation to the Bhima Koregaon case. He was picked up by the Police from Mumbai airport earlier this year. While the arrest was made immediately after the Pune Court had rejected his pre-arrest bail plea, it was later termed as “illegal” and in contempt of a Supreme Court order by the Sessions Court..This order of the Pune Sessions Court has now been assailed before the Supreme Court under Article 136. The Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee issued notice in the same on Monday while condoning the delay. The Court also stayed the operation of the order passed by the pune Court till further orders..In its order passed on January 14 this year, the Supreme Court had granted interim protection to Teltumbde for four weeks. The question of law raised by the State of Maharashtra in the instant petition is regarding when the interim protection is said to have come to an end..After interim protection from arrest for four weeks was granted to Teltumbde, he had moved the Sessions Court in Pune for pre-arrest bail. This plea was rejected by the Sessions Court and the Pune Police acted swiftly to arrest Teltumbde from the Mumbai Airport at midnight. The arrest was assailed by Teltumbde, and led to the Sessions Court ruling in his favour..On February 2, the Pune Court had directed the Police to release Teltumbde immediately on the grounds that the period of four weeks of interim protection had not lapsed at the time the arrest was made..However, it is now contended by the State of Maharashtra that the interim protection extinguishes when the accused has exercised the right to seek appropriate remedy and the period of four weeks is only an outer limit for exercise of this right. Therefore, once the pre-arrest bail plea was rejected, the interim protection granted by the Supreme Court would have stood extinguished and thus the action of the Pune Police would not be in contempt of Court. It is contended,.“No malafides can be attributed to the investigating officer. It needs to be seen that as mentioned above the protection granted by this Hon’ble Court came to an end on the day of filing of the Anticipatory Bail Application. The Trial Court did not grant any interim protection to the respondent. Despite that, the investigating officer showed a goodwill gesture by not arresting the respondent. After rejection of the application for Anticipatory Bail Application, the investigating officer did his duty and arrested the respondent. The action of the investigating officer is perfectly legal.”.Whether or not the Sessions Court had the jurisdiction to comment on the contempt of the Supreme Court is also a question raised by the State of Maharashtra, which is also seeking a stay on the observations made by the lower Court in its order..Anand Teltumbde is one of the many persons whose houses were raided by the Pune Police in a multi-city crackdown in August last year. The arrested lawyers and activists were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and were alleged to have links with left-wing extremist groups..[Read Order]