Mumbai: The Bombay high court Monday extended civil rights’ activist Gautam Navlakha’s interim protection from arrest till Friday in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
On Monday, when Mr Navlakha’s anticipatory bail application (ABA) came up for hearing before the court, his counsel Yug Chaudhary said that he needed time to file a reply as he had received the police’s affidavit in response to Mr Navlakha’s pre-arrest bail plea Monday morning.
He informed the court that he had gone through the affidavit and sought time to file his reply on the same. Mr Chaudhary also told the court that he wanted to argue on the three sealed documents that the prosecution had relied on and he needed time to study those documents.
Additional public prosecutor (APP) Aruna Pai opposed the grant of more time to the accused and adjournment of hearing till next week. However, Justice P.D. Naik posted the matter for hearing on December 6, and extended the interim relief granted to Mr Navlakha till the next date of hearing.
In September, a division bench of the high court had refused to quash the case against Navlakha, following which he had approached the SC.
The apex court, while extending the interim protection granted till November 12, had directed Mr Navlakha to approach the concerned sessions court in Pune seeking pre-arrest bail. On November 12, the Pune sessions court had rejected Mr Navlakha's anticipatory bail plea and also refused to extend the protection granted to him, after which he moved the HC.
