The Bombay High Court has granted bail to researcher Rona Wilson and activist Sudhir Dhawale, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. The court noted that they had been in jail since 2018 and the trial was yet to start. The court said the two had spent more than six years in jail as under-trial prisoners. The NIA, the prosecution agency, did not seek a stay to the HC order. Eight other activists have been granted bail in the case, which pertains to provocative speeches allegedly delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017.
The Delhi high court freed Navlakha from house arrest on Monday, five weeks after he and four other rights activists were arrested in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence in Maharashtra.
In his plea, Navlakha, 69, also sought that the HC direct authorities of the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai to get him medically examined for a lump developed in his chest.
Navlakha, who had surrendered before the NIA on April 14 in pursuance to the Supreme Court's direction and was lodged in Tihar jail, was taken to Mumbai by train on May 26.
Teltumbde, Navlakha and nine other civil liberties activists have been booked under the stringent provisions of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for having alleged Maoist links and conspiring to overthrow the government.
Prolonged incarceration without trial amounts to infringement of the right to life under the Constitution, the Bombay high court said while urging a special court to expedite the trial in the 2018 Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
The top court also expunged adverse remarks of the Delhi high court against the National Investigation Agency made in its May 27 order while dealing with the bail plea.
Justice Anup J Bhambhani, who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, said there was an evident haste shown by the NIA in moving pleas across Mumbai and Delhi over weekends and Gazetted holidays (Eid) and obtaining orders by e-mail, and 'whisking away' Navlakha to Mumbai, which has rendered these proceedings infructuous.
They were called to the special cell office in the afternoon and questioned till late evening, a Delhi police source said.
Poet-activist Varavara Rao, 81, is the only accused in the case to have secured an interim bail. The Bombay high court had in February this year granted Rao conditional bail for six months considering his medical condition. Rao had been in jail since his arrest in August 2018.
The Bombay high court on Thursday granted bail to activist Mahesh Raut, arrested in the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case.
Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case accused and former Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen was released from a prison in Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon, an official said.
The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on a plea of activist Gautam Navalakha seeking bail in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case of Bhima Koregaon lodged in Maharashtra.
The Delhi Police, in a first information report (FIR) filed under anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) following allegations against news portal NewsClick, has alleged that a large amount of funds came from China in order to disrupt India's sovereignty and cause disaffection against the country.
Corrupt people are destroying the country and they get away with corruption by taking the help of money, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.
Activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, are likely to walk out of jail only next week after securing bail from the Supreme Court on Friday as certain formalities are to be completed before they are released, defence lawyers said in Mumbai.
Gangster Ejaz Lakdawala on Thursday brought the bottle and sought a mosquito net, but his plea was rejected by the sessions court.
'We have been fighting to treat political prisoners differently.' 'Except for Hyderabad and Kolkata, the concept of keeping political prisoners separate doesn't exist in India.'
Uttam Ghosh offers his take on the arrests and Professor Guha's assertion of what the greatest Indian of our times would unquestionably have done had he been alive.
In the final segment of a four-part interview, Communist Party of India-Maoist general secretary Ganapathy says the Maoists are prepared to come to the table for talks provided the government agrees to their main demands.
"The Centre will not invite Maoists to talk till they abjure violence," said G K.Pillai, the Home Secretary. Pillai was speaking at a seminar organised by South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA). The other participants were Maoist sympathizer and PUCL, Hyderabad, chairman and eminent human rights lawyer, K.B.Kannabirn, and human rights activists Gautam Navlakha and Shabnam Hashmi.
In Part III of the interview, the CPI-Maoist general secretary says that the party is building its cadre base to wage a protracted war with 'enemy' forces.
In the first of a 5-part series, Ganapathy talks about the birth of revolutionary movement, its struggles and the way it has learnt its lessons with passing time.
It was also learnt that Gautam Navlakha, a shareholder in NewsClick, remained involved in anti-Indian and unlawful activities such as actively supporting banned Naxal organisations and having anti-national nexus with Gulam Nabi Fai, an agent of Pakistan's ISI, it stated.
Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri appeared before the Delhi high court on Monday and tendered an unconditional apology in connection with a criminal contempt case over his alleged remarks against a judge of the court.
Gurumurthy's counsel said the journalist has already tendered his apology in relation to a tweet and there is no necessity for him to file another affidavit conveying an unconditional apology in clear terms.
On Wednesday, when Babu's plea came up before a bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and VG Bisht, the bench recused itself from hearing it without citing any reason.
'I was laughing and crying at the same time. Right now, just extremely happy that she will be out and amongst us soon.'
The apex court on July 28 granted bail to the two accused, noting that the actual involvement of Gonsalves and Ferreira in any terrorist act has not surfaced from any third-party communications.
Sabha Husain, female partner of activist Gautam Navlakha, said she felt "worst" to be surrounded by policemen all the time and be "constantly watched".
The release of activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, could get delayed as a special NIA court in Mumbai on Monday rejected their pleas for temporary cash bail.
The Income Tax department on Friday conducted separate 'survey operations' at the premises of online news portals Newsclick and Newslaundry in New Delhi, officials said.
Teltumbde, the grandson-in-law of Dalit icon Dr B R Ambedkar, was produced before a special NIA court judge A T Wankehede after his remand ended on Saturday.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing alleged fraudulent foreign funds infusion of more than Rs 86 crore into a company that runs the NewsClick portal even as it is expected to soon file a charge sheet in the case being probed under the anti-money laundering law, official sources said on Monday.
'The individuals whom this government and its media call 'Urban Naxals' should not have been arrested.' 'In any civilised democracy (which India is not) this would not have happened,' argues Aakar Patel.
According to a media report published on Saturday, only one of the outfits to which eight of the arrested activists belonged was declared as unlawful.
'Shoma didn't have the luxury of time. She was already suffering from so many ailments.'
The apex court also rejected the plea to appoint a Special Investigation Team for probe.
The apex court questioning the police about the arrests said that 'dissent is the safety valve of democracy and if you don't allow these safety valves, it will burst.'
The special court judge D E Kothalikar has asked the national probe agency to file its reply on the matter on November 26.
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