All accused arrested in Elgar Parishad case appear before special Mumbai court

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Feb 28 (ANI): All the accused arrested in the Elgar Parishad case were produced before a special NIA court in Mumbai on Friday.
The case was transferred from Pune Police to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by the Central government in January this year.
Special NIA judge DE Kothalikar decided to hear all the pending applications, including those filed in a Pune court and slated the matter for further hearing March 13, which will be heard via video conferencing.
However, three of the accused -- VV Rao, Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira -- told the court that they will defend themselves and appear in-person.
Accused Ferreira, while arguing his case, requested a copy of the hard disks recovered from his computer, which is now evidence, and sought the soft copy of the Pune police chargesheet saying that there is no space at Arthur road jail to keep the hardcopy.
Nine people -- Rona Jacob Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Surendra Gadling, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonzalves, Arun Pareira Ferreira and Sudha Bharadwaj -- of the 11 accused have been arrested in the matter.
Anand Teltumbade and Gautam Navlakha are yet to be arrested for allegedly giving provocative speeches during Elgar Parishad in December 2017, having connections with banned CPI (M), raising funds for the terror outfit and planning the assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (ANI)