‘Humanity important’: Bombay HC after jail officials deny spectacles to Gautam Navlakha

“We need to conduct workshops for jailers. How are such small items denied? These are all human considerations,” said the Division Bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik.

The bench made the observation while hearing petitions filed by members of Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural organisation, and activists and Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor against their ‘illegal’ arrest by the National Investigation Agency in the Elgaar Parishad case.

Gorkhe and Gaichor were active members of ‘Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyaan’, a body that had organised the Elgaar Parishad, an evening conclave held at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, ahead of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.

In September, the activists claimed before a special court that they were coerced by the NIA into recording confessional statements.

Senior Counsel Mihir Desai, representing the accused, said the special NIA Court in Mumbai was not a competent authority to remand them in custody.

Advocate Sandesh Patil, arguing for the NIA, sought time to respond to the plea, which the court accepted.

“The offence is alleged to have occurred in Pune. The case was initially heard at the UAPA Court in Pune. However, after NIA took over the investigation, it was transferred to special NIA Court in Mumbai, when there is a special NIA Court in Pune,” Desai argued.

Earlier, in the context of another case on frequent sedition charges brought by the police for social media posts critical of the government, the same bench had said, “Why are police officers invoking Section IPC 124-A? Please conduct workshops for police officers.”

The bench, on Tuesday, also referred to its earlier order allowing co-accused, 81-year-old poet-activist Varavara Rao, who is also lodged at Taloja jail, to be shifted to Nanavati Hospital for his treatment till further orders.

“Our consideration was restricted to allowing him to be shifted to Nanavati Hospital. Humanity is important, everything else will follow subsequently,” the bench said.

Telugu writer-poet Varavara Rao. (File Photo)

The bench asked how many accused in the Elgaar Parishad case accused were senior citizens. To that, Desai said that while two of them were above 75 years of age, nearly 7 to 8 were above 60.

The bench, however, indicted that on the question of granting interim bail to the accused, it was bound by the past judgements including that by the Supreme Court, which last year set aside a Delhi High Court order granting bail to Jammu and Kashmir businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, arrested by the NIA on terror funding charge.

The HC has set December 21 as the next date for hearing petitions in the case.