Court extends interim relief from arrest to Navlakha

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday extended the interim relief from arrest given to civil liberty activist Gautam Navlakha till June 26.  The court also kept his petition, which sought to quash an FIR against him, for final hearing. While deferring the petition for final hearing, the division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharati Dangre said the ad-interim relief would continue till next date of hearing.

On the last date of hearing, the additional public prosecutor Aruna Kamat Pai presented the court with some letters, allegedly recovered from Mr Navlakha’s laptop, sealed in an envelope. These letters were allegedly sent by senior Maoist leaders to Mr Navlakha. After checking the letters, the bench observed no incriminating material against him in any of the letters.

The bench added that there was nothing “secretive” in those documents and could be shared with Mr Navlakha. However, Ms Pai sought time from court to seek instructions from the investigating officer on sharing the documents with the civil liberty activist.

However, on Tuesday, she informed the court that these documents could not be shared with Mr Navlakha at this stage but would only after the charge sheet is filed.  

The Pune police had booked Navlakha for his alleged involvement in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence.

Others who had been arrested were activists Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao.

All five activists were booked under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).