PIL seeks transfer of Elgar Parishad investigation to NIA

Pune: A group of activists has filed a writ petition in Bombay high court, demanding that the probe into the Elgar Parishad (EP) FIR be transferred from the Pune police to the National Investigating Agen-cy (NIA). The activists reasoned that the Pune police, which arbitrarily and with political motivation arrested the left-wing thinkers, had no rights to probe the case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

On January 8, Tushar Damgude lodged a FIR with the Pune police against the organisers of the Elgar Parishad for provocative speeches that led to riots at Bhima-Koregoan on January 1, 2018.

Jignesh Mewani, Umar Khalid and Sudhir Dhawale spoke at the Elgar Parishad held on December 31, 2017. While probing the FIR, the Pune police on August 8arrested five activists including Sudha Bhardwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, P Varavara Rao, and Gautam Navlakha. Earlier on June 6, it arrested Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale and Satish Gaikwad.

Advocate Tosif Shaikh, who filed the case, said, “We want the FIR lodged at Vishrambaug police station to be transferred to the NIA.