On Tuesday the Supreme Court granted bail to Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, noting that the trial in the case was not likely to conclude any time soon.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and S V N Bhatti refused to continue the stay the Bombay High Court imposed in December 2023 on its bail order. It added that Navlakha will have to pay Rs 20 lakh towards the expenses for his security during house arrest.
‘He has been in custody for more than four years and the trial will take a long time to complete as there are 370 witnesses in the case, six of his co-accused have been released on bail and the charges have also not been framed yet’, noted the bench.
‘Prima facie we are of the view that there is no need to extend the interim order of bail. The appellant has been in incarceration for more than four years and charges are yet to be framed and the High Court by detailed order has deemed fit to grant bail. The trial would take years and years and years to completed and thus we are not inclined to extend the stay’, said the court and asked Navlakha to cooperate with the trial.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by the NIA challenging the high court order granting him bail. The NIA’s counsel contended that the allegations were serious and that not all the co-accused had been granted bail.
The high court had said that no covert or overt terrorist act had been attributed to him under Section 15 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, of 1967.
It 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”.
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