Mumbai: A special court here has allowed activist Jyoti Jagtap, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to receive five educational or general books every month inside Mumbai’s Byculla prison where she is lodged.
Her plea seeking books in the prison was allowed by special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court judge Rajesh J Katariya on Monday, but the order was made available on Tuesday.
Jagtap, a member of the Kabir Kala Manch, was arrested in September 2020 on the charge of propagating Naxalite activities and advancing Maoist ideology. She is accused by the probe agency NIA of raising provocative slogans at the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave held in Pune in December 2017 along with other members of the radical cultural group.
In her plea, filed through advocates Sharif Shaikh and Krutika Agarwal, the activist had said she has completed Master of Arts (MA) in psychology and desires to receive some books every month in the prison.
The plea further said on a previous occasion, the superintendent of the Byculla prison had refused to accept delivery of books and asked her advocates and family members to get a court order for accessing them.
The prosecution had opposed Jagtap’s plea, saying the accused had not given names of the books she wanted to receive.
However, the court said Byculla (women) prison superintendent shall allow the applicant Jagtap to receive five general/educational books a month from her relatives/advocates.
The superintendent shall examine and verify the books prior to handing over the same to the applicant, Judge Katariya said.
Further, the court said in event the books to be received by the applicant contained any objectionable, obscene or material propagating or giving any unlawful message or material of banned organizations namely the Revolutionary Democratic Front, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) or any such outfits, the same shall not be allowed to be received by her.
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 western Maharashtra city, located around 200km from Mumbai.
The Pune police, which initially probed the case, had claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists.
The NIA later took over the probe into the case, in which more than a dozen activists and academicians were named as accused.
