This Article is From Jan 13, 2021

Court Allows Activist Sudha Bharadwaj To Access Books From Outside Jail

Special NIA court judge DE Kothalikar allowed a plea of Ms Bharadwaj in this regard on Tuesday.

Court Allows Activist Sudha Bharadwaj To Access Books From Outside Jail

The pleas of Mr Babu and Mr Navlakha will be taken up in the next hearing (Representational)

Mumbai:

A special NIA court has allowed activist Sudha Bharadwaj, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case, to access books from outside Byculla prison, where she is lodged, according to an order made available on Wednesday.

Special NIA court judge DE Kothalikar allowed a plea of Ms Bharadwaj in this regard on Tuesday.

The judge directed the jail superintendent to allow Ms Bharadwaj access to five books a month from outside the prison in central Mumbai.

Last month Ms Bharadwaj, and co-accused Gautam Navlakha and Delhi University professor Hany Babu had filed separate pleas through their lawyer Chandni Chawla seeking access to books and newspapers from outside prison.

Mr Navlakha and Mr Babu are lodged in Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai.

The pleas of Mr Babu and Mr Navlakha will be taken up in the next hearing.

"The superintendent shall carefully examine the books and if, they contain objectionable material, which preaches violence, vulgar, obscene, pornographic or the material propagating the banned organisation namely Revolutionary Democratic Front or CPI (Maoist), in that case he shall not allow the applicant to accept such books," the court said.

In a related development, academician-activist Anand Teltumbde, also an accused, in his fresh bail plea filed before the court on Tuesday, has said the prosecution theory that he was abetting others to wage war against the government is all "humbug".

"Even after the NIA has taken over nothing could be found and thus theory of prosecution that accused are waging war or attempting to wage war or accused is abetting others to wage war or incite the public is all humbug," Mr Teltumbde said.

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