Mumbai: After Bombay high court on Wednesday expressed its disinclination to permit Anand Teltumbde to travel to Amsterdam and the UK to deliver academic lectures, saying he could give them virtually, the 2018 Elgar Parishad Maoist-links case accused withdrew his plea.A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale then granted Teltumbde liberty to renew his petition to travel abroad at a future date. He is currently out on bail.The bench heard senior counsel Mihir Desai for Teltumbde, who said that besides delivering lectures, his client would also be conducting academic seminars at various universities abroad and hence permission to travel was thus needed. He assured that Teltumbde would abide by all conditions that the court may impose. Teltumbde’s plea stated that the universities had invited him, and he sought to travel to Amsterdam on April 1 as a visiting scholar on his expertise in “the area of social justice” and would also deliver a lecture on Dr B R Ambedkar on April 14, and to the UK on May 1, and would return to India on May 21.The universities that invited Teltumbde included Leiden Institute for Asia Studies, Leiden University in the Netherlands; Nottingham Trent University in the UK as Scholar-in-Residence for the first two weeks in May 2026; Oxford South Asia Society, University of Oxford; University School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh; and University College, London for delivering lectures.HC, however, went by the objections raised by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) counsel Chintan Shah, who said the agency apprehends that Teltumbde may abscond and continue from abroad his alleged criminal acts of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).NIA said while Teltumbde may have international acclaim, govt needs to scrutinise the actual need for such lectures abroad by him. The lectures can be delivered online with a link to be shared with NIA to monitor his activities, said the agency. Teltumbde’s plea for a discharge from the case was rejected by the special NIA trial court. HC orally said NIA’s apprehension is based on such rejection. “We are not inclined (to grant relief),” HC said, and permitted Teltumbde to withdraw the plea with liberty to apply in the future.