Hours after Delhi High Court ended his “untenable” house arrest, journalist and social activist Gautam Navlakha on Monday released his statement and vowed to continue to speak up for “enforcement of our constitutional freedoms” and fight against the “oppression and exploitation”.
In a letter titled “Statement of an Urbal Naxal”, Navalakha expressed his gratitude towards the people, including Supreme Court judges, and said that he won his “freedom” from the Delhi High Court. “It thrills me to no end,” he wrote.
Navlakha was one of the five rights activists who was arrested by Maharashtra Police in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case. The police had claimed that Navlakha had links with banned Maoist organisation and his actions at the 'Elgaar Parishad' event held on December 31, 2007, triggered the Bhima-Koregaon violence - a charge he outrightly denied.
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The journalist-activist congratulated the LGBTQ community for the Supreme Court verdict that scrapped Section 377 of the Indian penal code that criminalised homosexuality or gay sex. He said the release of Bhim Army’s Chandrashekhar from preventive detention was another reason to celebrate as it showed the power of “indomitable resistance against socially entrenched casteist tyranny.”
He called upon people to “continue to speak up for the enforcement of our constitutional freedoms and against oppression and exploitation in all forms.”
Read the complete statement of Gautam Navlakha below:
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