Concerns National Security: NIA On Why Elgar Case Was Transferred

The NIA said its credibility is being questioned even as it fights to prevent unlawful and terrorist activities in the country, in which the "Naxal plague" has caused destruction at many levels.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) told the Bombay High Court today that the Centre has decided suo motu (on its own) to transfer the probe into the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case from the Pune Police to the central agency as it had implications on national security. The NIA also said its credibility is being questioned, while it is fighting to prevent unlawful and terrorist activities in the country, in which the "Naxal plague" has caused destruction at many levels. It further claimed that while considerable autonomy and functional prerogatives have been accorded to state governments, greater powers and prerogatives over a complex range of all-encompassing subjects are vested with the Union government. The central agency submitted its affidavit in the High Court in response to a petition filed by human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling and activist Sudhir Dhawale, arrested in the case, challenging the January 2020 decision of the Union government to transfer the probe into the case from the Pune police to the NIA.