On Friday, the Supreme Court's Division Bench, comprised of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli, dismissed the National Investigation Agency's special leave petition challenging the Bombay High Court's order granting bail to Professor Anand Teltumbde in the Bhima Koregaon case. The bench did add, however, that the High Court's observations will not be considered conclusive final findings in the trials.

During today's hearing, the CJI also inquired as to what role Teltumbde played.

"What is the specific role to bring UAPA sections into action? The IIT Madras event you alleged is for Dalit mobilization. Is Dalit mobilisation preparatory act to proscribed activity?"

According to the chargesheet filed against Teltumbde, he conspired to further the ideology of the banned CPI(Maoist) and to overthrow the government. However, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who was representing Teltumbde, informed the Court that none of those documents had been recovered from him. The emails allegedly sent by Teltubmde were allegedly recovered from co-accused Rona Wilson's computer. Teltumbde was also estranged from his brother Milind Teltumbde, a Maoist leader who was killed in an encounter with security forces last year, according to Sibal. "I haven't seen him in 30 years," Sibal said. According to Sibal, the NIA's case linking Milind to Anand is based on hearsay testimony provided in a statement recorded under Section 161 CrPC, which is unenforceable in evidence.

The court noted that Teltumbde had travelled extensively to give lectures at prestigious institutions such as the London School of Economics, Harvard University, MIT, and Michigan University, and that the fact that his brother was a wanted CPI(Maoist) accused does not implicate him in his alleged ties to the banned organisation.

The NIA arrested the 73-year-old former IIT professor and Dalit scholar on April 14, 2020, after he surrendered to the agency in response to Supreme Court orders in connection with the alleged Maoist connections in the Bhima Koregaon case.

While granting bail to Teltubmde, the High Court division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Milind Jadhav stated that there was no evidence of terrorist activity against Teltubmde.