Bombay HC dismisses Navlakha’s bail appeal in Elgar Parishad case

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday dismissed activist Gautam Navlakha’s appeal seeking bail in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, saying it sees no reason to interfere with a special court’s order which earlier rejected his bail plea. According to police, some activists allegedly made inflammatory speeches and provocative statements at the Elgar Parishad meet in Pune on December 31, 2017, which triggered violence at Koregaon Bhima in the district the next day.

The police have also alleged that the event was backed by some Maoist groups. The NIA is conducting a probe into the case.

A bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik on Monday said it had gone through a special NIA court’s order of last year rejecting Navlakha’s bail plea, and that it saw “no reason to interfere” with the order.

Navlakha approached the HC last year, challenging the special NIA court’s order of July 12, 2020 that rejected his plea for statutory bail.

On December 16 last year, the HC bench reserved its verdict on the plea filed by Navlakha, seeking statutory or default bail on the ground that he had been in custody for over 90 days, but the prosecution failed to file a charge sheet in the case within this period. The NIA had argued that his plea was not maintainable, and sought an extension to file the charge sheet.

The special court had then accepted NIA’s plea seeking extension of 90 to 180 days to file the charge sheet against Navlakha and his co-accused, activist Dr Anand Teltumbde.

The FIR against him was re-registered in January 2020, and Navlakha surrendered before the NIA on April 14.

He spent 11 days in the NIA’s custody till April 25, and since then he in judicial custody in the Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai.