Bombay HC extends protection to Elgar activists

Mumbai: The Bombay high court Thursday extended the interim protection from arrest granted to activists Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde and Stan Swamy in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case till December 14.

A bench of Justices B.P. Dharmadhikari and Sarang Kotwal also directed the Pune police to file an affidavit by December 5 this year on its probe into the case. The bench’s direction came after the state counsel, additional government pleader Aruna Pai, opposed a plea filed by Navlakha seeking that the FIR against him be quashed.

Pai told the bench that while the police had ‘enough material evidence against Navlakha, it could not yet make the same information public’.

She added that at the present stage, Swamy and Teltumbde were me-rely ‘suspects’ in the case and that the police's probe into the two, and other activists was still underway. The bench, however, took strong exception to Pai's statement and said that the prosecution was bound to pla-ce on record all relevant information in the case.

“File an affidavit putting on record whatever stage your investigation is right now. Since you are saying you can’t ma-ke details public, pla-ce the reasons behind your inability to make them known, also in the affidavit. All that is necessary and relevant to the case must be brought on record,” the bench said.

The bench also directed the three petitioners to file their counter-affidavits within a week from the date that the police files its affidavit.