Elgar Parishad case: HC grants bail to activist Gautam Navlakha

Navlakha was arrested for his alleged involvement in the Elgar Parishad Conclave held in Pune in December 2017. He, along with seven others, was accused of distributing Naxalite literature and making inflammatory speeches that led to civil unrest in various places, including Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday granted regular bail to activist Gautam Navlakha, who was arrested in the Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon violence case on August 28, 2018.

Human Rights Activist Gautam Navlakha

A division bench comprising justice AS Gadkari and justice SG Dige on Tuesday ordered Navlakha to be released on furnishing a personal bond of ₹1 lakh and one or two sureties in the same amount.

The bench said other bail conditions for the activist would remain the same as imposed on his co-accused, Dalit scholar Dr Anand Teltumbde and tribal activist Mahesh Raut, who were granted bail on November 18, 2022, and September 21, 2023, respectively.

The division bench, however, stayed its own order granting regular bail to Navlakha for three weeks – to enable the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) to challenge the order before the Supreme Court.

Earlier, in April, an NIA court denied Navlakha’s request for bail due to his affiliation with a banned Maoist group that had attacked and killed several government officials as well as what appeared to be a connection to Syed Gulam Nabi Fai, whom the US court had accused of having ties to the Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Navlakha was arrested for his alleged involvement in the Elgar Parishad Conclave held in Pune in December 2017. He, along with seven others, was accused of distributing Naxalite literature and making inflammatory speeches that led to civil unrest in various places, including Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra. Later, he was placed under house arrest on November 22 last year under a Supreme Court order.

In his appeal, Navlakha claimed the special court erred in rejecting his bail plea. The NIA, however, claimed that there was strong evidence for his links with Pakistan’s ISI, and the bail, therefore must be rejected.

This is the second time Navlakha has approached the court for regular bail. Earlier, in March, he approached the high court against a September 2022 special court order that rejected his application for regular bail. The high court, after perusing the matter, remanded it back to the special court for adjudication, calling its earlier order cryptic and unreasoned.

The other accused in the case, Dr Varavara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira , and Vernon Gonsalves, are out on regular bail.