At connection with the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case, activist Gautam Navlakha was told to remain under house arrest at a Mumbai public library. On Friday, he filed a request with the Supreme Court for a change of residence.
The attorney for Navlakha informed the bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna that the location where he is under house arrest is a public library and has to be cleared out.
The only thing I’m asking, according to Navlakha’s attorney, is a change of address in Mumbai.
In another court appearance, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said he was unaware that the case had been mentioned and asked for more time to answer.
The bench said that it would hear the case on Friday.
On November 10 of last year, the top court granted Navlakha’s request to be put under house arrest due to his failing health. At the time, Navlakha was being held at the Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai in connection with the case.
It had said that Navlakha does not have any criminal history apart from this case and that the Government of India had even selected him as an intermediary to conduct negotiations with Maoists, noting the activist has been detained since April 14, 2020, and there is, at first glance, no reason to deny his medical assessment.
The investigation revolves around allegedly inciting remarks made at the Elgar Parishad gathering in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police assert led to violence the following day near the Koregaon-Bhima war monument on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.