A special National Investigation Agency court has permitted the Enforcement Directorate to record the statement of lawyer Surendra Gadling in a money-laundering case against him and some accused persons in the Bhima Koregaon case, Live Law reported on Wednesday.

The Bhima Koregaon case pertains to caste violence that took place a day after an Elgar Parishad conclave in a village near Pune on January 1, 2018. Sixteen persons were arrested for allegedly plotting the violence.

The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that Gadling and other accused persons were involved in raising and disbursing funds for violent activities, according to The Indian Express. The agency had approached the court last month seeking permission to record Gadling’s statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act at Navi Mumbai’s Taloja prison.

The court permitted the Enforcement Directorate to record his statement on August 17, 18 and 19.

Earlier, Special Public Prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves alleged that Gadling was a prime suspect and an active member of the banned Commuist Party of India (Maoist).

On the other hand, Gadling – who represented himself in the case – told the court that the National Investigation Agency has been looking into the case for nearly four years and has not made any claim about recovering funds from him.

He alleged that the Enforcement Directorate had made false allegations about fictitious accounts linked to him and said that no such accounts were found when his home was searched at the time of his arrest.

Gadling was among those who were named in the first chargesheet filed in the Bhima Koregaon case on November 2018.

In July last year, a report by a United States-based digital forensics firm said that Gadling’s computer was hacked to plant evidence in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case, according to The Washington Post.

The 53-year-old’s device was infected with NetWire, a commercially available form of malware, for nearly two years before his arrest, Arsenal Consulting said.