The Supreme Court today directed activist Gautam Navlakha under house arrest in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
He has to deposit another Rs 8 lakh as an expense for making available police personnel for his security.
Last year, at the time of ordering his house arrest on November 10, the top court initially directed Navlakha to deposit an amount of Rs 2.4 lakh as the expenses to be borne by the state for making available police personnel to effectively facilitate placing the petitioner under house arrest.
The bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna passed after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju submitted that a total bill of Rs 66 lakh was pending.
Therefore, the top court directed Raju to file a reply within 2 weeks on Navlaka’s plea seeking to be shifted from the public library in Mumbai, where he is under house arrest in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
On Navlakha’s request to walk for 45 minutes, Raju stated that he would seek instructions. The ASG said that even the police personnel are forced to walk with him. The apex court remarked, “Instructions for a walk. He is doing them a favour. They will become trimmers. Most are out of shape otherwise.”
On November 10, 2022, the apex court allowed Navlakha, who was then lodged in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja prison in connection with the case, that is to be placed under house arrest owing to his deteriorating health.
Notably, the activist has been in custody since April 14, 2020, and prima facie there is no reason to reject his medical report, and it said that Navlakha doesn’t have any criminal background except for this case and even the government of India appointed him as an interlocutor to hold talks with Maoists.
However, when putting a number of conditions, including a deposit of Rs 2.4 lakh as security expenses, the top court stated the order to place the 70-year-old activist under house arrest for a month in Mumbai should be implemented within 48 hours.
Since the November 10, 2022 order, the top court extended the activist’s tenure of his house arrest several times.
Therefore, Navlakha on February 17 withdrew from the apex court that his application seeks to be shifted to Delhi from Mumbai under house arrest. Navlakha told the top court through his counsel that he’ll look for some other place to stay in Mumbai.
On January 9, the Supreme Court stated that its interim order placed Navlakha under house arrest and will continue till the next date of hearing.
Furthermore, the case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017. Police claim triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the city.
