Activist Navlakha first to secure his freedom

In a setback to Pune Police, Gautam Navlakha became the first activist among five arrested on August 28 in the Bhima Koregaon case to secure freedom from a high court.

The Delhi High Court ended his house arrest and set aside the Pune trial court’s transit remand order, which Navlakha had challenged before the matter was taken to the Supreme Court.

The Delhi High Court bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel said the trial court's order was unsustainable in law.

The High Court also did not accede the Pune Police request to extend his house arrest for at least two more days. The court said the apex court had extended the arrest only to enable the rights activists to move the appropriate court.

Since he had done so, the High Court held that his detention exceeding 24 hours was untenable in law and, consequently, his house arrest would come to an end as of now.

The decision came within three days of the Supreme Court extending for four weeks the house arrest of Navlakha and four others -- Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernom Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.

Reacting to the verdict, Navlakha said the ruling “thrills me no end”. Navlakha also thanked the Supreme Court judges for their order last week for giving reprieve to the arrested human rights activists. “I wish to thank the majority and dissenting Justices of Supreme Court for their judgement, which allowed us four weeks to seek relief in this matter,” said Navlakha. He also appreciated the fight put up by people rallying around them.

Delhi-based Navlakha is a journalist and human rights activists and actively involved with the People's Union of Democratic Rights (UPDR); he is also an editorial consultant of the left-oriented Economic and Political Weekly published from Mumbai.

The ruling thrills me no end. I wish to thank the majority and dissenting Justices of Supreme Court for their judgement, which allowed us four weeks to seek relief in this matter.