New Delhi: The Supreme Court is likely to hear a petition of activist Gautam Navlakha today, who is under house arrest in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, that he be shifted from a public library in Mumbai to some other place, news agency PTI reported. A bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna on April 28 had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file its reply within two weeks on Navlaka’s plea seeking to be moved out of the public library to some other place as the facility needs to be vacated.
The apex court had also directed Navlakha to deposit another Rs 8 lakh for deployment of police personnel for his security. While ordering his house arrest on November 10 last year, the Supreme Court had initially asked Navlakha to deposit Rs 2.4 lakh as the expenses for his security were to be borne by the state.
In November, the top court had allowed Navlakha, who was then lodged in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja jail, to be placed under house arrest owing to his deteriorating health. Noting that the activist has been in custody since April 14, 2020, and prima facie there is no reason to reject his medical report, the court said Navlakha does not have any criminal background except for this Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case and even the government of India had appointed him as an interlocutor to hold talks with Maoists.
Imposing a number of conditions, including a deposit of Rs 2.4 lakh as security expenses, the Supreme Court had passed the order to place the 70-year-old activist under house arrest for a month in Mumbai and said it should be implemented within 48 hours.
Notably, the case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claim triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the city.