Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday asked the National Investigation Agency to respond to the bail plea of activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
He had approached the HC for bail after the special NIA court presiding over the case rejected his plea in September. The plea was listed for the first time on Monday before the division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and PD Naik. The bench issued notice to the National Investigation Agency on the bail plea of the accused. The matter will be posted for hearing in due course of time.
The special judge, while denying bail to Navlakha, had noted there is "ample material" against the activist in the charge-sheet filed by the NIA. He is, prima facie, connected with the alleged offence, the NIA court had said. Navlakha was arrested on August 28, 2018, for his alleged involvement in the case and is currently under house arrest for a month on medical grounds.
The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial located nearby. The Pune police had also claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists. The NIA later took over the probe in the case, in which more than a dozen activists and academicians have been named as accused. (PTI)
