Mumbai court issues release memo for activist Gautam Navlakha's house arrest

Gautam Navlakha, an accused in Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, is likely to walk out of the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai on Saturday, as a special court here issued a release memo to facilitate his month-long house arrest.

The special court hearing cases related to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) issued the release memo around 2.15 pm on Saturday. On Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court had rejected the NIA’s application and ordered that Navlakha be placed under house arrest ”without fail” within 24 hours.

The investigating agency on Saturday submitted to the special court here the compliance report about completing the release formalities of the activist, after which the court issued the release memo, which will then be mailed to the jail authorities and the Navi Mumbai police commissioner.

After his release from the jail, Navlakha will be taken to premises selected for his house arrest in Navi Mumbai.

The 70-year-old activist who claims to be suffering from multiple ailments, has been in jail since April 2020 in the 2017-18 case. On November 10, the Supreme Court had allowed Navlakha to be put under house arrest for a month with certain conditions and said its order should be implemented within 48 hours. However, the NIA had moved the apex court earlier this week seeking vacation of its order for house arrest, saying Navlakha, being a charge-sheeted accused in a case involving threat to national security and integrity, does not deserve any extra leeway.

On Friday, the SC, however, went ahead with its November 10 order of placing the activist under house arrest. The case against Navlakha relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.

According to the Pune police, people linked to banned Naxalite groups had organized the programme.

The case, in which over a dozen activists and academicians have been named as accused, was later handed over to the NIA