House arrest of Navlakha extended by SC to Feb 17 in Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday extended its interim order putting social activist Gautam Navlakha, who is suspected of having ties to the Maoists and Pakistan's ISI spy agency, under house arrest until February 17.

Due to the unavailability of Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, a bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna adjourned the hearing.

During the brief hearing, the court was apprised that the whole process of house arrest was working well.

Senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, appearing for Navalakha, submitted that the social activist’s daughter lives abroad and sought permission if he can receive a call from her.

“He can’t call on an international number. I thought we’ll file an application, but since we are already here. I will give the information to NIA,” she said.

The top court had on November 18 ordered that Navlakha be placed under house arrest “without fail” within 24 hours and ordered some additional security measures to be put in place at the building where the activist will be kept under house arrest.

Alleging that Navlakha’s medical report issued by the Jaslok hospital was “vitiated”, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had said proper treatment was given to him whenever required and his condition was manageable within the premises of Taloja central jail.

On November 15, the top court cleared the hurdle for the release of Navlakha from Taloja prison by waiving the requirement of a solvency certificate for availing the benefit of house arrest.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claim triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.

With PTI inputs