New Delhi: The Maharashtra government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi high court order allowing Gautam Navlakha, one of the five rights activists arrested in connection with the Bhima Korehaon case, to be freed from house arrest.
The plea has been filed in the apex court registry Wednesday morning challenging the Delhi high court order, Nishant Katneshwar, counsel for the Maharashtra government told PTI.
The Delhi high court had on Monday freed Navlakha from house arrest, five weeks after he along with four other rights activists were arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence in Maharashtra.
Granting relief to 65-year-old Navlakha, the high court had also quashed the trial court’s transit remand order which he had challenged before the matter was taken to the Supreme Court.
Also read: What Delhi HC Had to Say While Freeing Gautam Navlakha from House Arrest
The court said Navlakha’s detention has exceeded 24 hours, which was “untenable”. “With there being several non-compliances of the mandatory requirement of Article 22 (1), Article 22 (2) of the Constitution and Section 167 read with Section 57 and 41 (1) (ba) of the Cr PC, which are mandatory in nature, it is obvious to this Court that the order passed by the learned CMM on 28th August, 2018 granting transit remand to the Petitioner is unsustainable in law. The said order is accordingly hereby set aside,” the court had said.
The Supreme Court on Friday had refused to order an SIT investigation into the arrest of the five rights activists by the Maharashtra police, and ordered four more weeks of house arrest. During these four weeks, the activists – Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha – may approach a trial court for bail, the apex court had said.
(With PTI inputs)