Pune court reserves ruling on Navlakha's pre-arrest bail plea

The sessions court here on Thursday reserved its judgement till November 12 on the anticipatory bail plea filed by civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha in the Elgar Parishad case and asked the police not to take any action against him till then.

Additional Sessions Court judge S R Navandar heard the advance bail application of Navlakha, accused of having Maoist links, and reserved his judgement for November 12.

He ordered the police not to take any action against him till the judgement is pronounced.

Navlakha, one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad caste violence case, had filed the anticipatory bail application in the sessions court on Tuesday.

On Monday, the Bombay High Court dismissed the Delhi-based activist's pre-arrest bail plea and asked him to approach the sessions court in Pune for relief.

Justice P D Naik, who dismissed the plea, asked the sessions court to hear and decide Navlakha's plea expeditiously.

Navlakha had filed the application in the high court which had, in September, declined to quash a police case lodged against him in January last year, after which he had moved the Supreme Court.

The apex court had granted him interim protection from arrest and said he could seek anticipatory bail from the court concerned.

According to the police, "inflammatory" speeches and "provocative" statements at the Elgar Parishad conclave held on December 31, 2017, had triggered caste violence at Koregaon Bhima village near here on January 1, 2018.

The police have alleged that the event, held at a fort, was backed by people with Maoist links.

Navlakha and the other accused were booked under the relevant provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Besides Navlakha, eight others, including Telugu poet Varavara Rao and Left-wing activists Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Sudha Bharadwaj, are accused in the case.