The Supreme Court on Tuesday made way for the release of Bhima Koregaon violence accused Gautam Navlakha from Maharashtra jail by waiving the requirement of a solvency certificate for availing the benefit of house arrest.
The #SupremeCourt cleared the obstruction in the release of activist Gautam Navlakha, accused in Bhima Koregaon case, from a Maharashtra jail by waiving the requirement of a solvency certificate for availing the benefit of house arrest. pic.twitter.com/EoZbNTnq6b
— IANS (@ians_india) November 15, 2022
Earlier this month, the apex court ordered the transfer of Gautam Navlakha to house arrest on account of his medical condition. But he lacked the solvency certificate required to avail the benefit of house arrest.
Navlakha’s counsel, senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan and advocate Shadan Farasat, informed the court that it will take a minimum of six weeks to secure a solvency certificate in respect of surety to be provided as a precondition for house arrest of the activist.
However, the Supreme Court this week did away with the requirement as the bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy pointed out that since it may require a minimum of six weeks to secure the solvency certificate in respect of surety to be provided as a pre-condition for the house arrest of the petitioner.
“Considering the submission and the circumstances, we deem it appropriate to waive the requirement of a solvency certificate for the petitioner to avail the benefit of our order dated 10.11.2022. It is ordered accordingly,” said the bench, in its order.
“Since other adequate security proofs such as passport, Aadhaar card, and PAN card have been provided, the trial court should not insist on a ration card as an additional proof of identity for the benefit of this court’s order,” the court further said.
On November 10, the Supreme Court allowed Navlakha to live under house arrest with his partner without using the phone. The court said he’ll be allowed to meet 2 members of his family, once a week and asked him to deposit a demand draft of Rs 2.40 lakh by name of Navi Mumbai CP, as the expenses to be incurred for constables’ deployment.
Gautam Navlakha arrested by NIA in connection with Elgar Parishad event in Bhima Koregaon
Gautam Navlakha was arrested in 2020 when 11 people were taken into custody for organising and giving provocative speeches during the Elgar Parishad event on the 31st of December 2017. The event was organised by “activists” of Kabir Kala Manch in Pune. The NIA says that the event promoted enmity between different groups of people and caste groups, leading to violence and loss of life. The NIA investigation revealed that the organisers of Elgar Parishad were in touch with leaders of CPI (Maoist), a banned terror outfit under UAPA, and were spreading the ideology of Naxalism/Maoism to encourage unlawful activity.
The evidence, according to the NIA, suggests that the CPI (Maoist) allegedly chalked out “United From and Work in the basic Masses”, under which a detailed strategy and programme to unite the struggles of various “oppressed nationalities” into a common fighting united front against the common enemy, i.e. the “Indian State”.
NIA said that in its investigation, they collected evidence that showed Navlakha and Hany babu MT were members of CPI (Maoist). They allegedly possessed “incriminating documents related to CPI (Maoist)” that are exclusively available only to the party members.
During the investigation, NIA found that arrested accused number 10, Anand Teltumbde was allegedly a senior member of CPI (Maoist) and worked in an urban area. He was in contact with other arrested accused, including Navlakha, accused Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferriera, Vernon Gonsalves, Stan Swamy, Hany Babu and other members of the CPI (Maoist) party along with accused Harshali Potdar and wanted accused Sudarshanda alias Katkam Sudarshan, secretary CRB and CCM of CPI (Maoist) party.
The ISI connection
Navlakha was also in contact with ISI agent Ghulam Nabi Fai via email and phone. Notably, Fai was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in July 2011 for accepting funds from the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Pakistani government. Fai reportedly did not disclose the origin of funds as required by US law. Navlakha had sought clemency for him in US court in a case of terror funding.
As per NIA, Navlakha visited the USA thrice and addressed the ‘Kashmiri American Council’ (KAC) Conference organised by Ghulam Nabi Fai. He used the email address [email protected] to stay in touch with Fai and contacted me over phone calls as well.
Navlakha allegedly wrote a letter to US Court Judge who was hearing Fai’s case for clemency. He allegedly submitted letters to the US court on Fai’s behalf. Furthermore, Navlakha was allegedly introduced to a Pakistani ISI General by Fai for his recruitment on the directions of the ISI. NIA alleged the evidence showed his nexus and complicity with ISI and Fai.
