A special court on Friday took cognisance of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) chargesheet against seven accused in the Bhima Koregaon - Elgar Parishad case.
Special NIA judge DE Kothalikar took cognizance of the offences alleged against Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap and Stan Swamy.
The court noted that in view of the aforesaid allegations and considering the material available on record, it finds that there is prima-facie material on record against the accused persons to take cognizance of the offences..Hence, cognizance is taken.
The over 10,000 page chargesheet had been filed against the accused on October 9 by the agency. They have been charged for criminal conspiracy among other offences under the IPC and under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The NIA has claimed in its chargesheet that the accused persons conspired against other co-accused claiming they conspired with other accused persons and to further the ideology of terrorist organization CPI (Maoist).
The agency has further said that its investigation has revealed that “the tentacles of conspiracy” were not only spread throughout the country, but extended beyond it. Naming a number of civil society organisations as “frontal organisations” of the CPI (Maoist), it claimed that the strategy and tactics adopted by the Maoists to carry out the “urban revolution” with the help of these organisations, has come to the fore.
The court on Friday also directed the prosecution to supply to all the accused the statements of those prosecution witnesses whose statements were recorded before a magistrate. Such statements are considered to be voluntary, without pressure and hence of more evidentiary value.
