Navlakha gets Elgar bail but order stayed to allow NIA appeal

MUMBAI: Bombay HC on Tuesday granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha, 73, in the 2018 Pune Elgar Parishad case, making him the seventh accused to get relief. Of the six granted bail so far, the last one, Mahesh Raut, a forest rights activist, is still behind bars in Taloja jail. Supreme Court had stayed the HC order on his bail.
A bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and S G Dige pronounced the order for Navlakha on Tuesday but stayed it for three weeks on a request by NIA counsel Sandesh Patil.NIA intends to approach Supreme Court against the order.
Navlakha was arrested in Delhi in August 2018 by Pune police. Delhi HC had stayed a transit remand and placed him under house arrest, an order the Supreme Court upheld. Later on October 1, 2018, Delhi HC set aside the arrest.
However, Navlakha finally surrendered on April 14, 2020 on orders of the SC after being protected from arrest for 1 year 7 months. Last November, SC again sent him to house custody from Taloja jail as his health had deteriorated.
Navlakha is booked for alleged Maoist links under UAPA. NIA alleges that documents from devices seized from him showed him delivering speeches related to the Kashmir separatist movement and reveal his links to the formation of the CPI (Maoist).
In June this year, HC had sought a reply from NIA on a fresh appeal filed by Navlakha after the trial court in Mumbai declined him relief in April 2023. This was the second time his bail plea was being rejected by the NIA judge.