The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha, accused in Bhima Koregaon riot case of 2018.
A division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and SG Dige imposed the same conditions for bail on Navlakha as imposed on the co-accused, Anand Teltumbde and Mahesh Raut.
The High Court also stayed the bail order for three weeks to enable the National Investigation Agency to appeal against the order before the Supreme Court.
Navlakha is the seventh accused to get bail in the Bhima Koregaon case after Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.
Of the above, Rao was granted bail on medical grounds and Raut is still awaiting release from prison as the stay on his bail order has been extended.
A detailed order is awaited.
Though Navlakha was lodged in prison initially, he was later shifted to his house and placed under house arrest in November 2022 after the Supreme Court allowed a plea by the activist citing his advanced age.
He has since been under house arrest in Navi Mumbai city of Thane district.
Navlakha, who is a human rights activist and the former secretary of the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), was arrested in August 2018.
Navlakha moved the High Court for bail after a special NIA court rejected his bail plea on September 5 last year.
The High Court initially ruled that the bail application required a fresh hearing by the special court, and remanded the case back to the court.
The special NIA court then rejected Navlakha’s plea after re-hearing the same, as directed by the High Court.
It also remarked in the order that Navlakha was a member of the banned terrorist organisation, Communist Party of India (Maoist), which had attacked and killed many government security forces.
Navlakha then re-approached the High Court with an appeal challenging this order.
Before the High Court, the NIA reiterated its opposition to the bail application, alleging that Navlakha was part of an urban movement to arrange for logistics for the rural Naxal movement.
