The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed activist Gautam Navlakha, who was arrested and later acquitted in the Maoists links case to clear the bill of Rs 1.64 crore raised by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as expenses incurred during the house arrest of the accused.
Navlakha, through his counsel, had sought details of the expenses claimed by the NIA before a bench of Justices M M Sundresh and SVN Bhatti in the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, April 9.
The bench, however, clarified that the activist cannot escape paying the bills that were incurred by the Maharashtra government on making available police personnel for his security during his house arrest, as he himself requested house arrest.
“If you have sought it, you have to pay,” the bench told the counsel representing Navlakha.
The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claim triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.
During the hearing, the counsel representing activist Navlakha said that they are not denying paying the expenses incurred on Navlakha but they need the details and calculations of the expenditure. However, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju, representing the NIA, said that 70-year-old Navlakha had earlier made payments of over Rs 10 lakh for this and now he is avoiding making further payment.
Navlakha’s counsel said the NIA’s plea, challenging the December 19, 2023 order of the Bombay High Court which had granted bail to Navlakha, was also required to be heard. The high court had granted him bail but stayed its order for three weeks after the NIA had sought time to file an appeal in the top court.
On January 5, the apex court had extended the stay imposed by the high court on the operation of its order granting bail to Navlakha.
“As long as you continue to have this facility, the figures are going to fly higher and higher. What we are today thinking is, instead of allowing it to touch the highest level, we will give one week time,” the bench told Navlakha’s counsel. It said Navlakha’s counsel can see the calculation and tell the court about it.
The bench, which said the interim stay granted on January 5 shall continue, posted the matter for hearing on April 23. On March 7, Navlakha’s lawyer had disputed the figure in the apex court and accused the agency of “extortion” while Raju had strongly objected to the use of the term “extortion”.
Navlakha has been under house arrest at a public library in Mumbai since November 2022. While ordering his house arrest on November 10, 2022, the apex court had directed Navlakha to deposit Rs 2.4 lakh towards the expenses to be borne by the state for deploying police personnel to effectively place him under house arrest. Later, it again directed Navlakha to deposit another Rs 8 lakh as expenses for providing police personnel for his security.
On November 10, 2022, the top court had allowed Navlakha, who was then lodged in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja prison in connection with the case, to be placed under house arrest owing to his deteriorating health.
(with inputs from PTI)