Elgar Parishad event was conspiracy to further agenda of banned CPI (Maoist); Jyoti Jagtap associated with naxalites: Bombay High Court

The Elgar Parishad event of December 2017 was a smaller conspiracy within the larger agenda of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), the Bombay High Court observed in its order refusing bail to Jyoti Jagtap, one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case..A bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Milind Jadhav observed from the evidence submitted that the Jagtap was in active touch with all other co-accused in the 2018 case to further CPI (Maoist) agenda.“It is seen that appellant was in active touch with all other co-accused working for different mask organizations to further the objectives of CPI(M). The Elgar Parishad event is thus a smaller conspiracy within the larger design and conspiracy of CPI(M) to further its agenda,” the 47-page order stated..Jagtap, alleged to be member of the banned organisation Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), was arraigned as an accused by the National Investigation Agency in the case two years after the incident took placeShe has been booked for offences under provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). She approached the High Court in appeal against an order of the Special NIA Court rejecting her bail application, which was upheld by the High Court today.The Court said that the CPI(Maoist) made a detailed strategy to overthrow the democratically elected government and Jagtap and other co-accused were part of the same..“It is also seen that CPI (Maoist) has chalked out a detailed strategy for furtherance of its objective to overthrow the democratically elected government of our country and Jagtap and other co-accused are prima facie actively strategising the same. The entire material produced before us by NIA clearly shows that the Elgar Parishad event was used and organized to establish underground contact with the banned terrorist organization CPI(Maoist) through its activist which include the appellant (Jagtap). It is seen that pursuant to the said programme, there was large scale violence resulting in unrest and death of one person,” the order authored by Justice Jadhav stated..The Court further observed that the stage plays enacted during the Elgar Parishad event by members of KKM and its activists were not only aggressive, but also highly provocative and clearly designed to incite hatred and ignite passion.“There are a number of innuendos in the text / words / performance of KKM which are pointed directly against the democratically elected government, for seeking to overthrow the government, ridicule the government, excerpts of which need to be mentioned here in order to highlight Jagtap’s role,” the order records.“KKM admittedly performed and incited hatred and passion by performing on the above agenda in the Elgar Parishad event. There is thus definitely a larger conspiracy within the Elgar Parishad conspiracy by KKM and CPI(Maoist)” the Bench added.The Bench also referred to certain documents allegedly recovered from Jagtap, as per NIA’s submission, which highlighted the role of CPI (Maoist) in attempting to destabilise the country by carrying out killings methodically and engage in armed conflict..From the statements produced before the Court, they deduced that Jagtap had an active presence with the naxalite movement and its core members.They also observed that the material revealed her active role in organising the Elgar Parishad event since the beginning as she maintained the entire income and expenditure account.“Jagtap’s role cannot be segregated or separated and it will have to be seen in the light of the charge of conspiracy of the entire case put forth by the NIA. The documents referred to herein above clearly highlights the active role of Jagtap in so far as organizing the Elgar Parishad event but more importantly it is the association of Jagtap with the prominent members of CPI(Maoist) which is a designated terrorist organization which cannot be lost sight of”, the Bench observed.Reiterating that there are reasonable grounds to believe the allegations by NIA against Jagtap as prima facie true, the Court did not find any error in the Special Court’s order and dismissed the appeal..[Read Order]