Day after the Supreme Court ordered the National Investigation Agency to move Gautam Navlakha, the jailed activist in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, the Mumbai court on Saturday released him from the Tajola jail.

A special court in Mumbai issued a release memo and now he will be under House Arrest at a community hall in Navi Mumbai that is owned by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), reports said.

On Friday, the court rejected the NIA’s argument that Navlakha had deliberately misled the court regarding his health and also directed the agency to move him to house arrest. Last week, the court ordered that he should be shifted to house arrest within 48 hours. However, his release got delayed and the agency was accused of delaying tactics.

On November 18, the Apex Court refused the NIA’s plea to recall its November 10 order to shift Navlakha from Tajola Jail to house arrest in Navi Mumbai. They argued if the might of the state cannot keep an eye on an ailing 70-year-old man.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared before the bench headed by Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy and argued that the jailed activist had misled the court to understand the house arrest premises was a residential property.

The 70-year-old Activist Gautam Navlakha has been jailed since 2020 in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case that erupted on January 1, 2018. The incident took place a day after alleged hate speeches were delivered at an Elgar Parishad Conclave to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. The violence had killed a 28-year-old youth and left 5 severely injured.

Reports said tension erupted between two neighbouring villages over the question of which community had conducted the last rites of Maratha ruler Sambhaji.

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