Koregaon Bhima violence: Bombay High Court protects Navlakha, Teltumbde, Swamy from arrest till Nov 21

The court was hearing a petition moved by Navlakha, Teltumbde and Swamy seeking to quash the FIR lodged by Pune Police on January 1 in connection with the Koregaon Bhima violence.

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Bombay High Court (Express Photo by Pradeep Kocharekar/File)

The Bombay High Court on Thursday protected activists Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde and Stan Swamy from arrest till November 21. The court was hearing a petition moved by Navlakha, Teltumbde and Swamy seeking to quash the FIR lodged by Pune Police on January 1 in connection with the Koregaon Bhima violence.

Additional Public Prosecutor Aruna Pai opposed the interim relief. She argued before a bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharati H Dangre to let the applicants go before the regular court for bail. Justice Dangre said that from the report submitted by the Pune Police, prima facie there is some evidence. Arguing for Navlakha, lawyer Yug Chaudhry then told the court that he will argue the matter for interim relief.

The bench went through the case diary and report submitted by the investigating officer. Chaudary informed the court that there is a case pertaining to the matter before the Supreme Court. The bench said that it will wait for the order from the Supreme Court. Until then, the interim relief shall continue. The court has posted the matter for November 21.

Activists Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj, P Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha had been put under house arrest for four weeks on the directions of the Supreme Court.

The FIR in the case, lodged by Pune resident Tushar Damgude on January 8, initially named Harshali Potdar and Sudhir Dhawale of the Republican Panthers, and Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap, Deepak Dhengle of the Pune-based Kabir Kala Manch. It claimed that the accused, as per the strategy of CPI-Maoist, “misled Dalits and spread thoughts of violence” in their minds.

On June 6, the police had arrested activist Rona Wilson, Nagpur-based lawyer Surendra Gadling, Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen, former Prime Minister Rural Development fellow Mahesh Raut and activist Sudhir Dhawale in connection with the case.

All had been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

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