Bhima Koregaon case: Bombay High Court extends relief from arrest for 3 activists

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The Bombay High Court on Thursday extended interim protection to activists Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde and Stan Swamy in the Bhima Koregaon case.

The Bombay HC had earlier on Thursday heard the petitions filed by the three activists challenging an FIR against them in connection with Bhima Koregaon case. 

The court has ordered an interim protection to the activists till December 14. A bench of Justices BP Dharamadhikari and Sarang Kotwal extended the interim protection and also asked the Pune police to file an affidavit of its probe in the case by December 5.

The bench's direction came after the state's counsel, additional government pleader Aruna Pai opposed a plea filed by Navlakha seeking that the FIR in the case against him be quashed. The court had slammed Pai asking her to bring the relevant materials which they want to produce before the court by December 4.

"File an affidavit putting on record whatever stage your investigation is right now. Since you are saying you can't make the details public, or known to the other party, place the reasons behind your inability to make it known, also in the affidavit. All that is necessary and relevant to the case must be brought on record," the bench said.

Pai told the bench that while the police had "enough material evidence against Navlakha, it could not yet make the same information public".

She added that at the present stage, Swamy and Teltumbde were merely "suspects" in the case and that the police's probe against the two, and the other activists was still ongoing.

The bench also directed the three petitioners to file their counter-affidavits within a week from the date that the police files its affidavit.

In August, police arrested five left-wing activists, after raiding their homes in several states for suspected Maoist links over the Elgar Parishad meeting which was held a day before the violence.

According to police, the Elgar Parishad event was funded and supported by Maoists.

At the event, held a day before the January 1 clashes at Bhima Koregaon near Pune, the activists allegedly made inflammatory speeches and provocative statements that contributed to the Koregaon Bhima violence, the police said.

The police raided the homes of the activists and lawyers from five states - Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. 

Some of them, including Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj, P Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha, were initially put under house arrest on the directions of the Supreme Court.

However, all of them, except Navlakha, were recently re-arrested and taken into custody by the police.

In October this year, another FIR was registered by the Pune Police on the same issue, naming eight more activists, including Teltumbde and Swamy.

Teltumbde and Swamy are yet to be arrested in the case.

(With PTI Inputs)