Activist Gautam Navlakha. File
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Activist Gautam Navlakha, who was ordered to be kept under house arrest at a public library in Mumbai with regards to the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case, on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking change of address.
A Bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna was told by the counsel for Mr. Navlakha, that the place where he was under house arrest, was a public library and needed to be vacated.
“All I am seeking is change of address in Mumbai”, Mr. Navlakha’s counsel said, requesting for urgent hearing.
Additional Solicitor General S.V. 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 would take up the matter for hearing on next Friday.
On November 10, last year, the top court had allowed Mr. 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 that the activist had been in custody since April 14, 2020, and prima facie there was no reason to reject his medical report, it had said Mr. Navlakha did not have any criminal background except in this case, and even the Government of India had appointed him as an interlocutor to hold talks with the 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.