Koregaon-Bhima case: Dalit activist Anand Teltumbde surrenders to NIA

Dalit scholar and activist Prof. Anand Teltumbde on Tuesday surrendered before the National Investigation Agency in connection with Koregaon-Bhima caste riots case, an official said here.

He was accompanied by his brother-in-law and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi President Prakash Ambedkar and the surrender coincidentally came on the 129th birth anniversary of the Architect of Indian Constitution, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

The NIA has already arrested nine civil rights defenders and human rights activists and it is probing Teltumbde's alleged links with Moaist groups.

Also accompanied by his wife, Rama, Teltumbde drove down to the NIA office in Malabar Hill and surrendered himself to the concerned authorities.

Besides Prakash Ambedkar, his cousin Anand Ambedkar and MLC Kapil Patil were also present.

The NIA probe encompasses an alleged CPI-Maoist conspiracy to overthrow the elected government in India and assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Keeping in view the directives of the Supreme Court, Prof. Teltumbde has surrendered to the NIA today," his lawyer Mihir Desai commented.

Booked under various laws including the UAPA, Teltumbde's surrender came after he exhausted all options from the Bombay High Court and the apex court.

A Mechanical Engineer from the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad and a doctorate in Cybernetic Modelling, Teltumbde served as a senior executive at BPCL and as Managing Director of Petronet India Ltd.

Later, he went from corporate into academics and has taught at the IIT-Kharagpur besides Goa Institute of Management.

Incidentally, Teltumbde's younger brother Milind Teltumbde is a senior office-bearer of the state unit of the banned CPI (Maoist) and is underground for several years as he is wanted by the police in several states.