Bhima Koregaon: SC Extends Interim Protection from Arrest to Navlakha, Teltumbde till March 16

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday extended till March 16 protection from arrest granted to civil rights activists Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde in the Bhima Koregaon case.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee said it would hear on March 16 the appeals filed by Navlakha and Teltumbde against the last month's order of the Bombay High Court rejecting their anticipatory bail pleas.

The Bombay HC, while denying the anticipatory bail to Navlakha and Teltumbde from February 14, had extended the interim protection from arrest for a period of four weeks to enable them to approach the apex court.

Appearing for the activists, advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi informed the bench that protection granted to both of them by the high court would expire on March 14 and the top court should extend it.

Navlakha and Teltumbde, among several other activists, have been booked by the Pune Police for alleged Maoist links and several other charges following the violence at Koregaon Bhima village in Pune district on January 1, 2018.

According to Pune Police, "inflammatory" speeches and "provocative" statements made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017 had triggered caste violence at Bhima Koregaon the next day.

Teltumbde and Navlakha had approached the high court seeking pre-arrest bail in November last year after a sessions court in Pune rejected their pleas.

In December last year, the high court had granted them interim protection from arrest pending disposal of their anticipatory bail pleas.

Although the Pune Police was investigating the case, the Centre had last month transferred the probe to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).