Bhima-Koregaon Case: Activist Gautam Navlakha’s Anticipatory Bail Rejected By Pune Court

The sessions court in Pune on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha in the Elgar Parishad case. Last week, the court reserved its judgement till Tuesday on the anticipatory bail plea and asked the police not to take any action against him till then.

Additional Sessions Court judge SR Navandar heard the advance bail application of Navlakha, accused of having Maoist links, and reserved his judgement for November 12.

He had ordered the police not to take any action against him till the judgement is pronounced. Navlakha, one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad caste violence case, had filed the anticipatory bail application in the sessions court on Tuesday.

On last Monday, the Bombay High Court dismissed the Delhi-based activist's pre-arrest bail plea and asked him to approach the sessions court in Pune for relief.

Navlakha had filed the application in the high court which had, in September, declined to quash a police case lodged against him in January last year, after which he had moved the Supreme Court. The apex court had granted him interim protection from arrest and said he could seek anticipatory bail from the court concerned.

According to the police, "inflammatory" speeches and "provocative" statements at the Elgar Parishad conclave held on December 31, 2017, had triggered caste violence at Koregaon Bhima village near here on January 1, 2018.