The Delhi High Court today (Monday, October 1) set free journalist and social activist Gautam Navlakha from house arrest while quashing a local court order granting transit remand to Maharashtra police to transfer him to Pune.<\/p>\n
Navlakha was one of five rights activists under house arrest in the Bhima Koregaon case. The Pune police had arrested Navlakha from Delhi last month following searches in several cities.<\/p>\n
The development comes days after the Supreme Court, while extending the house arrest of Navlakha and others by four weeks, said the accused could seek legal recourse in an appropriate court<\/p>\n
The High Court bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel said that the transit remand was given by the local court without compliance of mandatory provisions of the Constitution and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).<\/p>\n
The judges said that in light of the \u201cnon-compliance\u201d of the Constitution of India and the Code of Criminal procedure, \u201cit is obvious that the order passed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) is unsustainable in law.\u201c<\/p>\n
The court noted that the transit remand order was passed in violation of the mandate of Article 22 of the Constitution and Sections 41(1)(ba) and 167 of the Code of Criminal procedure.<\/p>\n
It said that the CMM had passed the order without due satisfaction with respect to the \u201cexistence\u201d of material proving necessity of arrest. Neither the case diary was perused by the CMM, nor the ground of arrest were communicated to Navlakha, said the court.<\/p>\n
The Court lifted the house arrest order, saying, \u201cIn view of Section 56 and 57 of CrPC and absence of remand order by the CMM, detention of Petitioner has exceeded 24 hours, which is untenable in law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cConsequently, house arrest of Petitioner comes to an end as of now,\u201d ordered the Bench, rejecting the argument of the Maharashtra Police to extend the house arrest by few more days. The Maharashtra Police wanted to take Navlakha to Pune in connection with an FIR lodged there following an event \u2014 \u2018Elgaar Parishad\u2019 (conclave) \u2014 held on December 31 last year that had triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village.<\/p>\n
The Court observed that the apex court had extended the house arrest by four more weeks to make the Petitioner \u201cavail the remedies\u201d available under law.<\/p>\n
The Court clarified that the Maharashtra Police may nonetheless proceed with the case in accordance with law.<\/p>\n
Navlakha was detained by Maharashtra Police from his residence in South Delhi\u2019s Nehru Enclave late August in presence of Delhi Police (Special Cell) SWAT team.<\/p>\n
Last week, the Supreme Court held that the crackdown and arrests of five activists, including Navlakha, from some parts of the country in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case on August 28 was not an attempt to silence dissent.<\/p>\n
By a majority opinion, the top court dismissed the petition filed by historian Romila Thapar and four others seeking a Supreme Court\u2013monitored special investigation team (SIT) probe into the allegations raised against the five arrested activists \u2014 poet Vara Vara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Navlakha.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court gave the accused four weeks time to take legal remedy and seek bail in a lower court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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