Mumbai: Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case accused Gautam Navlakha’s partner Sahba Husain on Thursday expressed happiness over the Supreme Court order allowing him to be placed under house arrest for one month.
The 70-year-old activist has been lodged in Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai following his arrest in the case in August 2018.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Navlakha’s request for house arrest, saying that prima facie there is no reason to reject his medical report. A bench of Justices K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy also said the house arrest order should be implemented within 48 hours.
Speaking to PTI, Husain said, “We are happy even if it is for a month. The order says he will have to be in Mumbai. We have seen certain places… but we are yet to zero in. We have to make arrangements now.”
In October 2021, he was shifted to the ‘anda cell’ (high-security barracks) and has been kept in solitary confinement since then, Husain had claimed at the time.
The SC, in its order, also directed Navlakha to deposit Rs 2.4 lakh, the estimated amount which the National Investigation Agency (NIA) claims as an expense for making available police personnel.
The apex court also said that Navlakha will not be allowed to use a computer or the internet during his month-long house arrest.
The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.
The Pune Police had alleged that the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links. The police registered an FIR on January 8, 2018, under the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) later took over the probe into the matter.
