Bhima Koregaon case: Gautam Navlakha's anticipatory bail application rejected

Mumbai, Oct 12: The Pune Sessions Court on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case.

The FIR was lodged against Navlakha and others by the Pune Police in January 2018 after the Elgar Parishad held on December 31, 2017, that had allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon Bhima in Pune district. The police had also alleged that Navlakha and other accused in the case had Maoist links and were working towards overthrowing the government.

During the October 15 hearing, the Supreme Court extended by four weeks the interim protection from arrest granted to Gautma Navlakha in the Koregaon Bhima violence case. A bench of justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta had asked Navlakha to approach the court concerned to seek pre-arrest bail in the case.

When the Maharashtra standing counsel, Nishant Katneshwarkar, objected to the grant of further interim protection to Navlakha, the bench questioned the state as to why they had not interrogated him for over a year.

The court took note of the fact that one of the co-accused has been granted similar relief recently by the apex court and said that Navlakha was granted interim protection from arrest since August 28, 2018. The bench said that a review plea is pending before the apex court against the slapping of provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and therefore it would not like to pre-judge the case at this juncture and pre-judice the case of either party.