Elgar Parishad case: Special NIA court rejects Gautam Navlakha’s bail plea

The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Monday rejected the bail plea of activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case

The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Monday rejected the bail plea of activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case. The bail application was filed on the ground that the prosecution had failed to produce evidence to connect Navlakha with a larger conspiracy.

Gautam Navlakha HT Archives

A detailed order by special judge Rajesh J Katariya is yet to be available.

Navlakha had claimed that ‘communicating with a fugitive for academic, journalistic or other purposes is not illegal and not an offence.’ He had also said that the charges under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act were not applicable to him.

“Being a peace activist, his beliefs are in fact exactly opposite to that of the Maoists, which are intrinsically based on violence. It is submitted that the applicant had criticised the Maoists and is implacably opposed to violence as his published writings [which predate his arrest] show,” the plea filed in February had said.

Special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty, on behalf of the NIA, had sought rejection of the plea, saying that he may influence witnesses and tamper with evidence.

Navlakha was first arrested on August 28, 2018 but was released after the Delhi high court quashed his arrest on October 1 that year. He was re-arrested on April 14, 2020 after his plea for anticipatory bail was rejected by the Supreme Court and has been in judicial custody since then.

The Vishrambag police in Pune had on January 8, 2018 registered the case on the basis of a complaint filed by Tushar Damgude, a local builder. The complainant alleged that members of Kabir Kala Manch and others had spread hatred through provocative songs, plays and speeches delivered at Elgar Parishad, an event purportedly organised by the front organisations of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) at Shaniwar Wada on December 31, 2017. This resulted in the violence at Bhima Koregaon the next day in which one person died and several others were injured, Damgude said.