The Supreme Court on May 14 lifted the stay on an order of bail granted by the Bombay High Court to activist Gautam Navlakha, charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in the Bhima Koregaon violence case
A Bench headed by Justice M.M. Sundresh pointed out that Mr. Navlakha has spent more than four years in jail, is in his seventies and his trial, in all likelihood, may take “years and years to complete”
Also read | The Bhima Koregaon case and what it tells us about democracy
A two-judge Bench of the High Court had allowed bail to Mr. Navlakha, observing there was no proof or material to back the claim of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that the activist has committed a terrorist act under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
However, the High Court had stayed the implementation of the order for three weeks after NIA sought time to appeal against the bail order in the apex court.
The past hearings had seen the apex court extend the stay on the bail order. In November 2022, the Supreme Court had ordered Mr. Navlakha to be shifted from Taloja Jail into house arrest on medical grounds.
Since then he has been paying the NIA the expenses for his house arrest, including the police guard and the CCTV cameras installed at the house arrest premises. The NIA had recently demanded ₹50 lakh from him.
On Tuesday, senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan said the septuagenarian has suffered prolonged incarceration. She said her client had already paid ₹2.4 lakh towards the expenses of the house arrest.
The Supreme Court ordered Mr. Navlakha to pay ₹20 lakh towards the expenses of the house arrest so far. The court said the payment of this amount would be a pre-condition for bail.
The court noted that the trial would be prolonged as there were around 370 witnesses. Besides, the Bench said six of the co-accused have already got bail.
“Prima facie we are of the view that there is no need to extend the interim order of stay. The appellant (Navlakha) has been in incarceration for more than four years and charges are yet to be framed. The High Court, by a detailed order, has deemed it fit to grant bail. The trial would take years and years and years for its completion,” the court noted.
Mr. Navlakha, also a journalist, was arrested on April 14, 2020, for his alleged involvement in the violence that erupted at Bhima Koregaon village in Pune district on January 1, 2018.
