Gautam Navlakha. file | Photo credit: The Hindu
The Bombay High Court on Thursday said the trial court’s order rejecting the bail plea of activist Gautam Navlakha was “confidential” and directed it to be decided afresh.
A division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and PD Naik responded to the bail plea filed by Mr. Navlakha.
On November 19, 2022, Mr. Navlakha was shifted from Taloja Central Jail to house arrest. He surrendered before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) office in New Delhi on April 14, 2021 and was taken into judicial custody soon after.
The court said, “The trial court has not given any reasons of whatever nature. It has not made necessary reasoning under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) while rejecting his bail. It also appears that the bail The order of the Supreme Court has not been considered while rejecting the application. The reasoning in the order is very cryptic and does not contain any analysis of the evidence relied upon by the prosecution,” the court said.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the NIA, also agreed that the bail application be sent back to the trial court. The division bench set aside the order of the trial court and directed the application to be disposed of within four weeks.
Earlier, the NIA had alleged that Mr. Navlakha has deep links with the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and supports the Maoist ideology and anti-government statements through his various lectures and videos. The aim of these activities was to overthrow the government. The NIA alleged that Mr. Navlakha was assigned tasks such as mobilizing intellectuals against government forces and recruiting cadres for guerrilla activities of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). He was not only supporting a banned terror outfit, but also had an active role in furthering CPI (Maoist) activities, argues the NIA.