SC refuses to recall Gautam Navlakha house arrest order

NEW DELHI: “With all the might of the state, can you not keep a 70-year-old ailing man in house arrest,” the Supreme Court asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday as it dismissed the agency’s application seeking recall of the order directing house arrest for civil rights activist and Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha on November 10.

“If you (NIA) are finding out some loophole to try and see how to defy our order, we will take a serious view of it,” said a bench of justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy that gave NIA 24 hours to give effect to its earlier order after installing additional measures for securing the premises at Belapur in Navi Mumbai where Navlakha and his 71-yearold partner will be staying for a period of one month.

These additional measures included sealing of an alternative entry door, locking the window grille inside the house and shifting the CCTV recording unit to a place of the NIA’s choice as the agency claimed that the premises was the office-cum-library of the Communist Party and securing the place was not possible as the first-floor house was an open hall with a library on the ground floor visited by the general public.

Modifying its November 10 order by incorporating the additional measures, the bench held, “We make it clear that the order of this court of November 10 be given effect to without any fail and within 24 hours from the time of receipt of the order.”

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who argued the NIA application, told the court: “This court was deliberately misled by the petitioner (Navlakha). Will it not shock your conscience if you find that this premises belongs to a political party? Can this court imagine that a person accused of serious terrorist act, having links with Maoists will be permitted to stay at a political party’s office?”

The NIA arrested Navlakha in April 2020 in connection with the violence that took place at Bhima Koregaon in January 2018. The NIA booked him under the UAPA, accusing him of having links with banned organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist). He is currently housed in Taloja Jail and was allowed house arrest considering his old age, health ailments and the absence of any criminal antecedents.

The bench told Mehta: “What is this political party argument, we would like to ask you. Is Communist Party of India not a recognized political party of this country? This fact certainly does not shock our conscience.”

Additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju, who also appeared alongside the SG, said: “There is repeated suppression by this person. A series of misleading statements have been made that will disentitle him to house arrest. Here is a person who is not straight forward.” Raju pointed out that the court was made to believe this is a residential house which was found to be a premises registered in the name of the Communist Party. “The electricity bill of this premises is in the name of the Communist Party,” Raju said.

Gautam Navlakha