The police also alleged that Navlakha and other accused in the case had Maoist links and were working towards overthrowing the government
New Delhi: On Friday Supreme Court gave social activist Gautam Navlakha gets tight protection from arrest till October 15 in the Bhim-Koregaon case and asked the Maharashtra police to produce relevant documents related to his case.
An FIR was lodged against Navlakha and four others Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, and Sudha Bharadwaj by the Pune Police in January 2018 after the Elgar Parishad held on December 31, 2017, that had allegedly triggered violence at Koregaon Bhima in Pune district the next day.
Earlier the high court had said, “Considering the magnitude of the case, we feel a thorough investigation is required”.
The high court had, however, extended the protection from arrest to Navlakha for a period of three weeks to enable him to approach the Supreme Court to file an appeal against its order.
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In January 2018 the FIR was lodged against Navlakha and others by the Pune police after the Elgar Parishad held on December 31, 2017, that had allegedly triggered violence at Bhima Koregaon in Pune district the next day.
The police also alleged that Navlakha and other accused in the case had Maoist links and were working towards overthrowing the government.
Navlakha and the other accused were booked under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code.
On Thursday, Justice S Ravindra Bhat became the fifth apex court judge to recuse himself from hearing a plea filed by the civil rights activist. On September 30, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had recused himself from hearing Navlakha’s plea.
On October 1, the three judges of a bench justices N V Ramana, R Subhash Reddy, and B R Gavai had also recused themselves from hearing the matter.
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