Activist Gautam Navlakha freed from house arrest by Delhi High Court

Gautam Navlakha, one of the five activists arrested during the raids in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, was on Monday freed from the house arrest by the Delhi High Court.

Human rights activist Gautam Navlakha at his residence after he was arrested by the Pune police in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence. PTI Photo

NEW DELHI: Gautam Navlakha, one of the five activists arrested during the raids in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, was on Monday freed from the house arrest by the Delhi High Court. According to PTI, The high court granted him the relief saying that the Supreme Court last week had given him the liberty to approach the appropriate forum within four weeks to seek further recourse, which he has availed. The court said Navlakha's detention has exceeded 24 hours which was "untenable". Setting aside the August 28 order of chief metropolitan magistrate granting transit remand of Navlakha, a bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel said there was non-compliance of basic provisions of the Constitution and the CrPC which were mandatory in nature. The bench said the trial court order was unsustainable in law. "In view of Section 56 read with Section 57 of the CrPC and absence of remand order of the CMM, the detention of the petitioner has clearly exceeded 24 hours which is untenable in law. Consequently, the house arrest of the petitioner comes to an end now," PTI quoted the court as saying. The Maharashtra Police has arrested five activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- on August 28 in connection with its probe in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case. The police had alleged that the activists have links with the banned CPI (Maoist) party. Navlakha was arrested from the national capital, prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana. They all were put under house arrest on August 29 following a Supreme Court order.