Bhima Koregaon case: Pune Police says govt lawyers studying Delhi HC's order to free Gautam Navlakha from house arrest

Pune: The Pune police said government lawyers in Maharashtra were studying the Delhi High Court’s Monday order freeing rights activist Gautam Navlakha, held in the Bhima Koregaon case, from house arrest.

The future course of action will be decided after government pleaders give their legal opinion on the matter, a senior police officer said.

Navlakha is one of the five rights activists who was arrested by the Pune police in August-end in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case.

The Delhi HC freed Navlakha from house arrest saying the Supreme Court last week had given him the liberty to approach the appropriate forum within four weeks to seek further recourse, which he has availed.

Granting relief to Navlakha, the high court also quashed the trial court’s transit remand order which he had challenged before the matter was taken to the Supreme Court.

“Our government pleaders are studying the order of the high court and our investigating officer is also travelling to the national capital. So after obtaining their legal opinion, the further course of action will be decided,” said Shivaji Bodkhe, the Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), Pune police.

Navlakha was arrested from the national capital on 28 August. The other four activists were arrested from different parts of the country.

They were arrested in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave — ‘Elgaar Parishad’ — held on 31 December last year that had allegedly triggered violence at Bhima Koregaon village near Pune on 1 January.

The five activists — Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Navlakha — were put under house arrest on 29 August following an apex court order.

Rao, a prominent Telugu poet, was arrested on 28 August from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai and trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana.

The police have claimed that all the five have links with Maoists.