Bombay High Court Issues Notice On Gautam Navlakha's Bail Appeal In Bhima Koregaon case

The division bench of Justice AS Gadkari and Justice P. D. Naik on Monday issued notice to the NIA in the case.

Navlakha is currently under house arrest after Supreme Court allowed his transfer from jail to house arrest on account of his medical condition for one month, subject to various conditions.

A special NIA court had on September 5, 2022 rejected Navlakha's bail application. The 73-year-old human rights activist has been in custody since August 2018.

The special court had noted that NIA specifically alleged that Navlakha had nexus in the crime. Special Judge Rajesh Katariya had observed that there is ample material in the charge sheet to show that Navlakha is connected with the offence. 

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.

Navlakha is accused 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 cite 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 no. – APEAL(ST)/19158/2022 [Criminal]

Case Title – Gautam P. Navlakha v. NIA