The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the house arrest of activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, till the second week of January.

A bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna passed the order extending Navlakha’s house arrest.

On November 18, the Supreme Court declined to recall its order on house arrest of Navlakha, despite the NIA claiming that Navlakha had made a series of misleading statements and he wanted to stay at place which has a library of Communist Party of India (CPI). The top court orally told the NIA, with all the might of the state, it is not able to keep a 70-year-old ailing man in house confinement.

On November 10, the top court had allowed Navlakha to be placed under house arrest after considering his deteriorating health and also asked him to provide local surety of Rs 2 lakh by November 14.

The top court allowed the 70-year-old to be placed under house arrest for a month in Mumbai, while imposing a number of conditions. “We would think on a conspectus of the facts that we should allow the petitioner to be placed under house arrest at least to begin with till the next date of hearing from the date on which he is actually placed on house arrest,” said the bench, scheduling the case for next hearing on December 13.

On September 29, the Supreme Court directed the Taloja jail superintendent to immediately shift Navlakha to Mumbai’s Jaslok hospital for treatment.

Navlakha moved the apex court challenging Bombay High Court, judgment passed in April, dismissing his plea to be transferred from Taloja Prison and placed under house arrest instead. In August 2018, he was arrested and initially placed under house arrest. In April 2020, after an apex court order, he was moved to Taloja Central Prison in Maharashtra.

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