Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the bail petition of activist Gautam Navlakha who is in police custody for more than one year in connection to the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case of Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra.
The division bench of Justice UU Lalit and Justice K M Joseph has dismissed Navlakha’s appeal against the Bombay High Court order denying bail to him.
The apex court had reserved its order on March 26. On March 3, the court had sought the National Investigation Agency’s response in connection to the Navlakha’s plea seeking default bail in the case. It was claimed that the charge sheet was not filed within the stipulated time period.
An FIR was re-registered against Gautam Navlakha in January 2020. Navlakha surrendered before the NIA on April 14, 2020. After being in NIA’s custody for 11 days till April 25, Navlakha is in judicial custody in Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai.
As per the police reports, some activists gave provocative statements and inflammatory speeches at the Elgar Parishad meeting in Pune on December 31, 2017 which led to violence at Koregaon Bhima the next day.
