New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, observing that the trial in the case was not likely to end any time soon.
A bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and S.V.N. Bhatti said Navlakha had been incarcerated for more than four years and that the trial would take “years and years and years” to complete.
The Supreme Court also noted that there were 370 witnesses in the case, six of his co-accused had already been released on bail and the charges had not been framed yet.
The bench was hearing the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) challenge to a Bombay High Court order which granted bail to Navlakha last December. The bench of Justices A.S. Gadkari and Shivkumar Dige said there was no material to infer that Navlakha had committed a terrorist Act as contemplated under Section 15 of UAPA.
It had added that “at the most, it can be said that Navlakha is a member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) attracting sections 13 (unlawful activities) and 38 (membership of a terrorist organisation) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act”.
However, the high court stayed his interim bail order for three weeks after the NIA sought time to challenge it in the apex court. The top court has extended the stay time and again before Tuesday.
The Supreme Court bench Tuesday refused to continue this stay but added that the former journalist will now have to pay Rs 20 lakh towards expenses incurred on his security during house arrest. Navlakha has already been under house arrest in Navi Mumbai following a Supreme Court order in November 2022, after he pleaded poor health.
The bench said: “Prima facie we are of the view that there is no need to extend the interim order of stay. The appellant has been in incarceration for more than four years and charges are yet to be framed… the High Court by detailed order has deemed for granting bail… .the trial would take years and years and years for its completion. Thus… without going into the respective contention, we are not inclined to extend the stay.”
An NIA court had earlier contended that there was prima facie evidence of a link between Navlakha and Syed Gulam Nabi Fai, who was convicted by a US court in 2012 for links with Pakistani spy agency ISI. The high court said this did not correlate with the present case. According to the NIA, Navlakha had written to the US court seeking clemency for Fai.
Navlakha was arrested on 14 April 2020, over his alleged involvement in the violence that erupted in Bhima Koregaon village in Pune district on 1 January, 2018 – the day of the bicentenary celebrations of the Bhima Koregaon battle. Stone-throwing at the annual celebration, also known as the Elgar Parishad Convention, had resulted in the death of a 28-year-old youth and injured several others.
The 1818 battle has garnered significance as a class triumph for Dalits over nationalistic spirit as on 1 January that year, 800 troops of the East India Company boosted by a large number of Mahars had defeated the much larger force of Maratha Peshwa Baji Rao II.
A victory pillar was erected in Koregaon by the British, commemorating the dead soldiers. In 1928, B.R. Ambedkar led the first commemoration ceremony. Since then, on 1 January every year, Ambedkarites gather at Bhima Koregaon to celebrate their victory against the Maratha Empire.
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