Maharashtra moves SC against Delhi HC order ending Gautam Navlakha’s house arrest

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court’s order ending Gautam Navlakha house arrest on October 1. Gautam Navlakha is one of the five-activists arrested in connection with Bhima-Koregaon violence.

According to the report, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court, two days after the Delhi High Court set aside Navlakha’s transit remand and freed him from house arrest. The case is expected to come up before newly appointed Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

Reacting to the High Court’s order on Tuesday, the standing counsel for the state of Maharashtra in the Supreme Court, had said, “We will put forward before apex court that the High Court, while ruling on a transit remand, has also ended the house arrest, which was extended by the Supreme Court. While doubting the arrest, the court has questioned the Panchnama, which we will point out Navlakha had signed at the time of arrest.”

Ending Gautam Navlakha’s house arrest the court had said, “Gautam Navlakha’s detention had exceeded 24-hour which was ‘untenable’. The Court had also quashed the trial court’s transit remand order, which Gautam Navlakha had challenged before the matter was referred to the Supreme Court.”

Navlakh had moved the HC seeking bail after the SC, in a recent judgment, allowed five activists arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad case seeking legal remorse in appropriate courts.

Apart from Gautam Navlakha, remaining four activists still under the house arrest comprising, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Sudha Bharadwaj.

Also read: Bhima-Koregaon case: Delhi High Court ends Gautam Navlakha’s house arrest