NIA accuses Navlakha of links with ISI agent held in U.S., opposes bail plea

Navlakha is presently under house arrest, instead of being in jail.

Activist Gautam Navlakha, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, had connections with a Pakistani ISI agent arrested in the U.S., the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has told the Bombay High Court while opposing his bail application.

The agency, in its affidavit filed in response to Navlakha's plea, also claimed that he had “committed acts that had a direct impact on the national security, unity and sovereignty." NIA lawyer Sandesh Patil on Monday informed a division bench of Justices A.S. Gadkari and P.D. Naik that it had filed its reply opposing Navlakha's bail plea.

The bench said it would hear arguments on the application on February 27.

The NIA in its affidavit claimed that Navlakha had visited the United States thrice to speak at the Kashmiri American Council Conference organised by Ghulam Nabi Fai with whom Navlakha was in touch regularly.

“Ghulam Nabi Fai was arrested by the (U.S. agency) FBI in July 2011 for accepting funds from the ISI and Pakistan government....Navlakha had written a letter to the judge of the U.S. court trying Ghulam Nabi Fai's case for clemency,” the NIA said.

“Gautam Navlakha was introduced to a Pakistani ISI General for his recruitment by Ghulam Nabi Fai on the direction of the ISI, showing his nexus and complicity with Ghulam Nabi Fai and Pakistani ISI,” the agency further claimed.

Navlakha is presently under house arrest, instead of being in jail, as permitted by the Supreme Court on health grounds.