Elgar Parishad case: Bombay HC rejects Gautam Navlakha's plea for transfer to house arrest

The Bombay High Court dismissed the plea of Elgar Parishad accused, Gautam Navlakha, seeking transfer to be placed under house arrest.

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed 2018 Elgar Parishad accused Gautam Navlakha's plea seeking a transfer from Taloja prison to be placed under house arrest.

The bench of Justices SB Shukre and GA Sanap had reserved their order earlier this month. While passing the order, the bench granted liberty to Navlakha to bring to the attention of the Special Judge under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to raise grievances with respect to difficulties faced by him and the said judge was directed to ensure that the grievances are redressed within the parameters of law.

The court also directed Taloja superintendent to take care of Navlakha's medical needs.

Navlakha, a human rights activist and former secretary of the People's Union for Democratic Rights, was arrested in August 2018. He was initially placed under house arrest. Later, he was moved to Taloja prison in Maharashtra in April, 2020 after a Supreme Court order.

Relying upon the SC judgment in his own default bail case, Navlakha moved the high court pointing out that he was being denied basic medical aid and other necessities in prison and was suffering great hardships at his advanced age.

Advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhry appearing for Navlakha submitted that the activist was denied spectacles despite losing them in prison and it was given one only after the issue was raised in the media.

"Do we live in some Nazi times that his spectacles were denied? ...So they refused him a chair, then spectacles, and then even slippers. It was like the concentration camps," Chaudhry said, while adding that even a book like that of PG Wodehouse was rejected by jail authorities citing security reasons.