Facebook Anand Teltumbde walking out of Pune district court with his lawyer Rohan Nahar on Saturday after being released

PUNE, Maharashtra: In a major setback to Maharashtra police, a sessions court in Pune has termed the arrest of Dalit intellectual Anand Teltumbde as illegal and ordered the police to release him immediately.

Teltumbde, a renowned academic and a professor in Goa Institute of Management, was arrested by Pune police early morning on Saturday from Mumbai airport on the charges of being a member of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and association with Dalit platform Elgar Parishad which the police claimed had Maoist funding and caused violence in Bhima Koregoan area of Maharashtra last year.

The arrest had taken place despite the Supreme Court granting four weeks’ protection from arrest to Teltumbde which ends on February 11 and it could now attract contempt proceedings from the apex court.

Teltumbde was produced before the sessions court of additional sessions judge K.D.Vadane in Pune on Saturday afternoon. The same judge had rejected his anticipatory bail application on Friday.

However, on Saturday Judge Vadane termed the arrest of Teltumbde as “illegal” and asked the police to release him immediately.

The prosecution argued that since Teltumbde had submitted to the jurisdiction of the sessions court under section 438 and was denied anticipatory bail, the Supreme Court protection was extinguished, however, judge Vadane rejected this argument.