Bombay High Court Grants Bail To Gautam Navlakha In Bhima Koregaon Case; Stays Order For 3 Weeks

The Bombay High Court has granted bail to senior journalist and activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon- Elgar Parishad case over alleged Maoist links.

The order was passed by a division bench headed by Justice AS Gadkari, making him the seventh accused to be granted bail in the case. 

After the NIA urged the court to stay the order for a period of six weeks, the court stayed the order for three weeks.

Navlakha is under house arrest after the Supreme Court in 2022 allowed his transfer from jail on account of his medical condition, subject to various conditions.

 The 73-year-old human rights activist has been in custody since April 14, 2020.

A special NIA court had, on September 5, 2022, rejected Navlakha's regular bail application. However, since his bail order lacked reasoning, the HC directed the bail application to be decided afresh in March 2023. The HC had called the trial court's order 'cryptic.' Accordingly, the trial again rejected his bail application, leading to Navlakha filing the present appeal in the HC. 

  A detailed copy of the order is awaited. 

Navlakha has been booked under Sections 153(A), 505(1)(B), 117, 120(B), 121, 121(A), 124(A) & 34 of IPC and Sections 13, 16, 17, 18, 18(A), 18(B), 20, 38, 39 & 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The National Investigation Agency accused him of furthering the banned CPI (Maoist)'s agenda and conspiring to overthrow the government. The NIA has also accused him of instigating the caste violence that erupted at Bhima Koregaon, a war memorial site in Pune, on January 1, 2018.

In the charge sheet, NIA has alleged that Navlakha was a member of CPI (Maoist) and possessed incriminating documents related to it. NIA also alleged that Navlakha supported the Kashmir separatist movement.

NIA also had alleged before the Special Court that Navlakha was actively involved in fixing appointments and meetings between active urban cadres and underground leaders of CPI (Maoist) under the garb of fact-finding missions.

Case title – Gautam Navlakha v. National Investigation Agency