Elgar Parishad-Maoist Link Case: Gautam Navlakha Moves SC Seeking Change of Address for House Arrest

Activist Gautam Navlakha, who was ordered to be kept under house arrest in a public library in Mumbai in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case, on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking a change of address.

A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna was told by counsel for Navlakha, that the place, where he is under house arrest, is a public library and needs to be vacated.

“All I am seeking is a change of address in Mumbai”, Navlakha’s counsel said, requesting for urgent hearing.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who was appearing in another matter in the court, said he had no idea about the mentioning of the application and sought time to respond to it.

The bench said it will take up the matter for a hearing next Friday.

On November 10, last year, the top court allowed Navlakha, who was then lodged in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja prison in connection with the case, to be placed under house arrest owing to his deteriorating health.

Noting the activist has been in custody since April 14, 2020, and prima facie there is no reason to reject his medical report, it had said Navlakha does not have any criminal background except this case and even the Government of India had appointed him as interlocutor to hold talks with Maoists.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claim triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.

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