Skip to main content
xYOU DESERVE INDEPENDENT, CRITICAL MEDIA. We want readers like you. Support independent critical media.

Bhima Koregaon Case: SC Reserves Verdict on Bail Plea of Activist Gautam Navlakha

PTI |
The top court on March 3, sought response from NIA on Navlakha’s plea seeking default bail, saying he was in custody for 90 days but no charge sheet had been filed.
Gautam Navlakha and Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on a plea of activist Gautam Navlakha seeking bail in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case of Bhima Koregaon lodged in Maharashtra.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit and K M Joseph, after hearing detailed arguments from senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Navalakha and Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for National Investigation Agency (NIA) reserved the verdict.

The top court had on March 3, sought response from NIA on the plea of Navlakha seeking default bail in the case, saying charge sheet was not filed within the stipulated time period. 

The high court had earlier said that "it sees no reason to interfere with a special court's order which earlier rejected his bail plea".

Navlakha had approached the high court last year, challenging the special NIA court's order of July 12, 2020 that rejected his plea for statutory bail.

On December 16 last year, the High Court bench reserved its verdict on the plea filed by Navlakha, seeking statutory or default bail on the ground that he had been in custody for over 90 days, but the prosecution failed to file a charge sheet in the case within this period.

The NIA had argued that his plea was not maintainable, and sought an extension of time to file the charge sheet.

The special court had then accepted NIA's plea seeking extension of 90 to 180 days to file the charge sheet against Navlakha and his co-accused, activist Dr Anand Teltumbde.

Navlakha's counsel had told the high court that the NIA was granted the extension to file its charge sheet.

Sibal had said Navlakha had already spent 93 days in custody, including 34 days of house arrest, and that the High Court must count house arrest as a period of custody.

While he was under house arrest, Navlakha's personal liberties remained curtailed, Sibal had said. However, Raju, who appeared for the NIA, had argued that Navlakha's house arrest could not be included in the time spent in the custody of police or NIA, or under judicial custody.

Raju had argued that the Pune police arrested Navlakha in August 2018, but had not taken him into custody.

He had said the accused remained under house arrest, and the Delhi High Court quashed his arrest and remand order in October 2018.

The FIR against him was re-registered in January 2020, and Navlakha surrendered before the NIA on April 14.

He spent 11 days in the NIA's custody till April 25, and since then he in judicial custody in the Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai.

Raju had argued that if the court “looked from the other angle, it would see that if he (Navlakha) was arrested on August 28, 2018, he should have been enlarged on bail”.

According to Pune Police, some activists allegedly made inflammatory speeches and provocative statements at the Elgar Parishad meet in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, they alleged, triggered violence at Koregaon Bhima in the district the next day.

The police have also alleged that the event was backed by some Maoist groups.

Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.

Subscribe Newsclick On Telegram

Latest