Mumbai Apr 20 PTI Justice Sadhana Jadhav of the Bombay High Court has recused herself from hearing a bunch of petitions about the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case the third judge of the HC to do so this year The accused in the case include 16 scholars and activists including the late Jesuit priest Stan Swamy Earlier this year Justice SS Shinde and Justice PB Varale of the Bombay high court had recused themselves from hearing the pleas arising from the Elgar Parishad case Justices Sadhana Jadhav and Milind Jadhav were presiding over two petitions filed by activists Rona Wilson and Shoma Sen seeking quashing of the case against them a bail plea filed by lawyer Surendra Gadling and a plea filed by priest Frazer Mascarenhas seeking that he be allowed to litigate on behalf of Swamy who died in custody while waiting for medical bail Justice Sadhana Jadhav on Tuesday said that she must recuse herself from hearing the cases and that no Elgar Parishad or Koregaon Bhima case matters be placed before her She did not assign any reasons for her decision to recuse herself Generally judges refrain from hearing a matter if they have any personal interests associations or stakes in a matter or if they have legally represented any of the accused persons in the past This is the third instance when a judge of the Bombay HC has recused from hearing the Elgar Parishad related cases Earlier this year Justice SS Shinde had recused himself from hearing the pleas arising from the Elgar case Incidentally Justice Shinde had been presiding over these matters between 2019 and 2021 It was his bench that had granted temporary medical bail to poet-activist Varavara Rao and default bail to lawyer cum activist Sudha Bharadwaj both accused in the Elgar case The matters had then been transferred to a bench led by Justice PB Varale who too recused from hearing them The high court then assigned a special bench led by Justice SB Shukre to hear the matters Earlier this month Justice Shukre was shifted to the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court following which the matters were referred to Justice Sadhana Jadhav The petitioners counsels will now have to move an application before the high court chief justice Dipankar Datta seeking that a special bench is assigned once again to hear the Elgar matters The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31 2017 which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial located on the citys outskirts The Pune Police claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists PTI AYA NSK NSK

Durban [South Africa], April 1 (ANI): Top knocks by Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma gave South Africa an upper hand against Bangladesh on Day 1 of the first Test. here at Kingmead, Durban.

Mumbai Mar 30 PTI Academic Anand Teltumbde an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that the National Investigation Agency NIA had labelled him a terrorist without attributing to him any direct act of violence Teltumbdes counsel Mihir Desai told the high court that while the NIA had claimed in its charge sheet in the case that Teltumbde was part of terrorist organisations and that he abetted terrorist activities he had not been charged directly for any particular act of violence in the case For one to be called a terrorist there must be an act of violence Desai told a bench of Justices S B Shukre and G A Sanap He was arguing on Teltumbdes behalf seeking bail for him in the case It is going to be my argument that a terrorist activity involves some type of violence Now it is not even their case that I was involved in any violence In that case you NIA cannot say that I Teltumbde am a terrorist Desai argued Desai further argued that while the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA under which Teltumbde and his co-accused have been charged in the case imposed stringent restrictions on geabt of bail the high court must keep in mind several Supreme Court judgements which mandate that an accused must not be kept behind bars endlessly without a trial or in cases where trials went on for long The trial in the present case is not likely to begin anytime soon he said Anand Teltumbde has written 16 books on the issue of caste in India He is active in civil rights movements since 35 years Hes reached the zenith in his career as well Desai said There are certain letters that have been found by the NIA from the computer of one Rona Wilson co-accused and they apparently say that one Anand was involved in certain anti-national activities Desai said He argued that while hearing the bail plea the high court will have to consider that even if eventually the authenticity of the said letters was probed in court and they were admitted as evidence would the mere mention of the name Anand be adequate to convict Teltumbde in the case If the court feels that I Teltumbde cannot be convicted based on the evidence before the court then I will be entitled to bail Desai said The high court will continue hearing the plea further on Thursday PTI AYA NP NP

Mumbai Feb 24 PTI The National Investigation Agency NIA on Thursday sought that the Bombay High Court dismiss a petition filed by poet Varavara Rao and two other activists arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case seeking a review of an earlier order of the HC that refused to grant them default bail The NIA in its affidavit said the accused were seeking the same prayer of default bail under the guise of review and that it was an abuse of the process of law and sets a wrong precedent The probe agency filed its affidavit in response to a review petition filed by the three activists Varavara Rao Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves - challenging a previous order of the high court that refused to grant them default bail in the case While Rao is currently out on medical bail the other two activists are lodged in jail The NIA said through the petition the accused are seeking to alter the observation made by the HC after verification of record and hearing of the case The applicants ought to have approached the appellate court in appeal instead of this court by introducing fresh arguments and seeking default bail which has been already decided by this court as unsustainable the NIA said Once the matter has been adjudicated and dismissed by this court the applicants cannot come up with the same prayer under the guise of review This is an abuse of the due process of law and completely thwarts the systematic procedure of law and the same sets a wrong precedent the agency said in its affidavit The three accused have challenged an order of December 1 2021 passed by the bench led by Justice Shinde that granted default bail to lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj a co-accused in the case but denied default bail to some other accused persons including the three petitioners At that time the HC had said the accused persons other than Bharadwaj had not filed their pleas seeking default bail before the lower court within the time stipulated by law The NIA in its reply said section 362 of the Criminal Procedure Code CrPC puts an embargo on the court to alter or review a judgment passed by the HC on merits However in their pleas filed through advocates Sudeep Pasbola and R Satyanarayanan the accused said the HCs order was based on a factual error for it failed to note the lower court had rejected the default bail pleas filed by Bharadwaj the three petitioners and two other co-accused persons through a common order Hence if the HC in granting bail to Bharadwaj set aside the lower court order of November 6 2019 the others too were entitled to relief A division bench headed by Justice S S Shinde posted the matter for further hearing on March 2 The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31 2017 which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the Maharashtra citys outskirts The Pune Police claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists The NIA later took over the probe into the case PTI SP GK GK

Mumbai Feb 18 PTI A special court here has denied bail to three persons accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case saying that the material on record suggests that the trio along with other members of the CPI Maoist a banned organisation hatched a serious conspiracy to create unrest in the country and to overthrow the Modi government A letter placed on record prima facie speaks that the CPI Maoist was bent upon ending the Modi raj and that they were also thinking of another incident like the death of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi by targeting the road shows of PM Narenda Modi the court said The three accused Sagar Gorkhe Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap all members of the Kabir Kala Manch were denied bail by the special NIA court judge D E Kothalikar on Monday The detailed order was made available on Thursday From the letters and documents placed on record prima facie it can be gathered that the applicants along with other members of the banned organisation hatched a serious conspiracy to create unrest in the entire country and to overpower the government politically the court said The material placed on record prima facie denotes that the accused were not only members of the banned organisation CPI Maoist but they were carrying out activities further in the objective of the organisation which is nothing but to overthrow democracy of the nation it said Referring to a letter placed on record the court said The contents of the aforesaid letter prima facie speaks that the CPI Maoist was bent upon ending the Modi raj that is the Modi-led government Not only this they were also thinking to go for another incident like the death of Rajiv Gandhi by targeting the road shows of Modi If these allegations are taken into consideration in proper perspective in that case there will be no hesitation to prima facie conclude that there is prima facie case against the applicants that they have done an act with intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity integrity security and sovereignty of India and with intent to strike terror in section of the people in India by other means to likely to cause death of or injuries to any person or persons the court added The court further said that the material placed on record prima facie establishes that the applicants were actively involved in the organisation of Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune Jagtap Gorkhe and Gaichor were arrested in September 2020 and have been in custody since then The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31 2017 which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the city Pune police had claimed that the conclave was backed by Maoists The probe in the case in which more than a dozen activists and academicians have been named as accused was later transferred to the National Investigation Agency NIA PTI AVI NP NP

Auckland [New Zealand], February 10 (ANI): South Africa Test skipper Dean Elgar said that the upcoming series against New Zealand will be a great test for both the teams to compare themselves.

Johannesburg [South Africa], February 3 (ANI): South Africa Test skipper Dean Elgar said that the Proteas are supporting their coach Mark Boucher, who is going through the allegations of misconduct.

Cape Town [South Africa], January 15 (ANI): No formal charges were filed against Team India following the controversial DRS call that had helped Proteas skipper Dean Elgar get his LBW decision overturned in the fourth innings of the Cape Town Test here at Newlands on Thursday.

Cape Town [South Africa], January 14 (ANI): India Test skipper Virat Kohli on Friday shied away from throwing light on the controversial DRS call that had helped Proteas skipper Dean Elgar get his LBW decision overturned in the fourth innings of the Cape Town Test here at Newlands.

Cape Town [South Africa], January 14 (ANI): South Africa on Friday defeated India in the third and final Test to clinch the three-match series 2-1 here at Newlands in Cape Town on Friday.