Bombay High Court Grants Bail to Activist Gautam Navlakha in Elgar Parishad-Maoist Case, No Evidence of Terrorism, India

The Bombay High Court has granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha, stating that there is no material on record to suggest that he conspired to commit a terrorist act. Navlakha, who had been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case in August 2018, was placed under house arrest in November 2022 by the Supreme Court. The High Court mentioned that there is no evidence of any covert or overt terrorist act being attributed to Navlakha based on the material presented by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The court also noted that the witness statements only indicate his membership in the CPI (Maoist), which falls under the provisions of participating in an unlawful activity and membership of a terrorist organization. The court further highlighted that documents mentioning his name but not recovered from him have weak probative value. The judgment emphasized that there is no material to infer a conspiracy to commit an offense as contemplated under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The court concluded that Navlakha’s mere association with the party cannot prima facie hold him accountable for any terrorist act. The NIA’s claim of his connections with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was also refuted by the court, stating that Navlakha had written a letter in his individual capacity seeking clemency for a US-based Kashmiri separatist. The court considered the possibility of the trial being concluded in the near future as bleak, as the trial court is yet to frame charges. The case originally focused on alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave, which the Pune Police claimed had Maoist backing and subsequently led to caste violence near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.