Activist Gautam Navlakha moved to Supreme Court on Friday after his plea has been rejected by the Bombay High Court seeking his house arrest to be shifted from the public library in Mumbai to some other place in the city. The bench stated that the case will be heard next Friday. He is under house arrest in a public library in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
A bench of Jutsice KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna was hearing to Navlakha’s counsel. He claimed that the public library needed to be vacated.
“All I am seeking is change of address (place) of his house arrest in Mumbai itself,” Navlakha’s counsel said, requesting for urgent hearing.
On November 10, 2022, the Supreme Court granted Navlakha, who was then imprisoned in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja prison in connection with the case, house arrest due to his deteriorating health.
Noting that the activist has been in custody since April 14, 2020, and that there appears to be no reason to reject his medical report, it had stated that Navlakha has no criminal history except for this case, and that the Government of India had appointed him as an interlocutor to hold talks with Maoists.
The top court ordered to place the 70- year-old activist under house arrest for a month in Mumbai after putting on a number of conditions which included a deposit of Rs 2.4 lakh as security.
The top court has extended his house arrest several times since the November 10, 2022 order.
On February 17, Navlakha withdrew his application to the Supreme Court seeking to be transferred from Mumbai to Delhi under house arrest.
Navlakha has informed the Supreme Court through his counsel that he will seek alternative accommodation in Mumbai.
On January 9, the Supreme Court stated that its interim order placing Navlakha under house arrest would be enforced until the next hearing date.
The case revolves around alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claim sparked violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on Pune’s outskirts.
