Relief to Navlakha, Teltumbde extended

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday extended till March 16 protection from arrest granted to civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde in the Bhima Koregaon case.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee said it would hear on March 16 the appeals filed by Navlakha and Teltumbde against the last month’s order of the Bombay high court rejecting their anticipatory bail pleas.

The high court, while denying the anticipatory bail to Navlakha and Teltumbde on February 14, had extended the interim protection from arrest for a period of four weeks to enable them to approach the apex court.

Appearing for the activists, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi informed the bench that protection granted to both of them by the high court would expire on March 14 and the top court should extend it.

The Bombay high court, after perusing l etters allegedly exchanged between the accused persons had noted that Navlakha, Teltumbde and the other accused persons like Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson and Sudha Bharadwaj had direct access and connections with central committee members and leaders of CPI (Maoist).

“It was revealed during the course of investigation that Anand Teltumbde was recipient of funds from the banned terrorist organization,” the court had said. Navlakha, Teltumbde and several other activists have been booked by the Pune Police for their alleged Maoist links and several other charges following the violence at Koregaon Bhima village in Pune district on January 1, 2018.

THEIR APPEALS AGAINST REJECTION OF THEIR BAIL PLEAS BY BOMBAY HIGH COURT WILL ALSO BE HEARD ON MARCH 16