The Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday sought responses of the Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) and the state of Maharashtra to jailed activist Gautam Navlakha’s plea that he be positioned below home arrest as a substitute of judicial custody within the Elgar-Parishad case.
The 70-year-old activist has appealed to the apex court docket towards the April 26 order of the Bombay Excessive Courtroom dismissing his plea for home arrest over apprehensions of lack of satisfactory medical and different primary services in
Taloja jail close to Mumbai the place he’s at present lodged.
The petition got here up for listening to earlier than a bench of Justices Ok M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy which issued notices to the NIA and the state searching for their responses.
The bench has posted the matter for resumed listening to on September 29.
The case pertains to alleged inflammatory speeches made on the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017 which the police claimed triggered violence the subsequent day close to the Koregaon-Bhima struggle memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra metropolis.
The Pune police had claimed the conclave was organised by individuals with Maoist hyperlinks. The NIA later took over the probe.
In the course of the listening to within the apex court docket, the counsel for Navlakha stated the petitioner had moved the excessive court docket on the idea of the highest court docket’s Might final 12 months order handed on a plea by the jailed activist.
In its final 12 months order, the apex court docket had expressed concern over overcrowding in jails and stated will probably be open for the courts to think about ordering home arrest of accused below provisions of the Legal Process Code.
“Based on this order, we had moved the Bombay High Court saying that I (Navlakha) in fact fulfil all the criteria that this court had laid down in this matter and please allow house arrest because I am in bad medical condition. I am 70-year-old. I have been under house arrest before as also I have no previous criminal antecedents,” the counsel stated.
On being requested by the court docket in regards to the nature of the crime for which he has been arrested, the counsel stated there are allegations about fee of offences lined below the Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act, however none of these are made out towards the petitioner.
The counsel stated, if the apex court docket so directs, Navlakha might be put below home arrest in Mumbai, the place his two sisters dwell, or in Delhi.
On August 29, apex court docket choose Justice S Ravindra Bhat had recused from listening to Navlakha’s plea.
The excessive court docket had stated Navlakha’s apprehensions in regards to the lack of medical assist and insufficient primary services on the Taloja jail, the place he’s at present lodged as an undertrial, had been “ill-founded”.
The apex court docket had earlier granted bail to 82-year-old activist P Varavara Rao within the case.
Navlakha had advised the excessive court docket the Taloja jail is overcrowded, the bathrooms soiled and that his medical situation deteriorated throughout his incarceration there.
“The case of the petitioner does not fit in any of the criteria (provided for by SC). The apprehension of the petitioner that he will not be provided medical aid and his life will be miserable in unhygienic conditions and atmosphere of the prison seems to be ill-founded,” the excessive court docket had stated.
Navlakha had approached the excessive court docket contending the Taloja jail had poor services. He had claimed he was denied a chair, a pair of slippers, his spectacles, and a PG Wodehouse e book by the jail superintendent.
