Elgaar Parishad case: Gautam Navlakha moves HC against NIA court’s rejection of bail plea

On April 20, Justice Revati Mohite-Dere, a senior judge presiding over a division bench, recused herself from hearing the plea, following which the matter was listed for hearing before a bench of Justice Girish S Kulkarni and Justice Rajesh N Laddha.

Navlakha, who was arrested on April 14, 2020, has been incarcerated since then. Since November, he has been under house arrest in Navi Mumbai.

On March 2, a division bench led by Justice Ajey S Gadkari of HC had disposed of Navlakha’s earlier appeal seeking “reasoned order” from the trial court. The High Court, while remanding the bail plea back to special court, had set aside the September 5, 2022, order of the special court and asked the special judge to restore Navlakha’s bail plea and decide it within four weeks.

Rejecting Navlakha’s bail plea on April 6, special NIA Judge Rajesh Katariya, had said there was prima facie evidence of a nexus between him and Syed Gulam Nabi Fai, who was convicted by a US court in 2012 for links with Pakistani spy agency ISI. The court said there are reasonable grounds for believing accusations against Navlakha, including that he is a member of the banned organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist).

In his fresh appeal filed before the HC through advocates Yug Mohit Chaudhry and Shifa Khan, Navlakha claimed the special judge had erred in his reasoning to reject the plea and said the observation of him being a member of the banned terrorist group was wrong and uncalled for. The lawyers sought that the order be quashed and set aside and urged the court to release Navl-akha on bail. While the matter was listed before a division bench of Justice Girish S Kulkarni and Justice Rajesh N Laddha Wednesday, due to paucity of time, the same could not be taken up in due course.