Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha in the 2018 Elgar Parishad Maoist link case. Currently under house arrest, Navlakha was arrested in 2018. The bail conditions are the same as those of his co-accused, Professor Anand Teltumbde, and Mahesh Raut, who were arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune in December 2017. The event was linked to violence near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial the next day. The High Court, however, imposed a 3-week stay on the order, allowing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to appeal to the Supreme Court.

In April of this year, a special court had denied Navlakha bail, noting prima facie evidence of his involvement with the banned outfit CPI (Maoist). The NIA alleges that the Elgar Parishad event was part of a larger Maoist conspiracy against the Indian government. Navlakha, the seventh accused to be granted bail, approached the High Court after being placed under house arrest in November 2022 due to deteriorating health.

Opposing his earlier bail plea, the NIA claimed that Navlakha had been introduced to a Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) General for potential recruitment, indicating his connection with the organization. Navlakha is the seventh accused to be granted bail out of the 16 activists arrested. Professor Anand Teltumbde, poet Varavara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferrira, and Mahesh Raut are out on regular bail, with Varavara Rao currently out on bail due to health grounds.

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