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A court here on Thursday (June 19, 2025) denied activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, the permission to live in Delhi.
Chakor Bhaviskar, special judge for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases, rejected the plea.
"Granting permission to the accused to travel beyond the jurisdiction of the court is a different thing and allowing him to reside permanently beyond the jurisdiction of the court is an entirely different thing," the court said.
The Bombay High Court, while setting his bail conditions, had not granted such liberty to Navlakha, the judge noted, adding, "this unnecessary application deserves to be rejected".
Navlakha (72), a resident of Delhi, was arrested in the case in April 2020.
He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in May 2024. One of his bail conditions was not to leave Mumbai without the permission of the special NIA court. He has been living in Mumbai with his partner.
Saying that it had become "extremely difficult for him to sustain a stable lifestyle" in Mumbai, the accused in April sought the court's nod to live in Delhi.
He was struggling to arrange funds for basic necessities such as food and house rent in the city, he said.
He also struggled to find accommodation in Mumbai for about four months due to the pending case against him, Navlakha told the court.
He would be able to find some employment in Delhi which was necessary to meet legal expenses, he argued, while also citing family issues such as the ill-health of his elder sister.
The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which Pune police claimed was backed by the Maoists. The speeches triggered caste violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial near Pune, the police claimed.
Sixteen activists were arrested in the case which was later taken over by the NIA. Most of them are out on bail.
Published - June 20, 2025 10:54 am IST
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