Bhima Koregaon case: Special NIA Court refuses bail plea of activist Gautam Navlakha

PTI, Sep 5, 2022, 7:36 PM IST

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Mumbai: A special NIA court here on Monday rejected the bail plea of activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elghar Parishad-Maoist links case. Navlakha was arrested on August 28, 2018, for his alleged involvement in the case.

He was initially kept under house arrest but was later sent to judicial custody and lodged at the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai. Special judge Rajesh J Katariya on Monday rejected Navlakha’s bail plea. The order details were not yet available.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the city’s outskirts.

The Pune police had also claimed that the conclave was backed by Maoists. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) later took over the probe into the case, in which more than a dozen activists and academicians were named as accused.