Relief has been granted to activist Gautam Navlakha, Prof. Anand Teltumbde and Jesuit Priest Fr. Stan Swamy till November 21 by the Bombay High Court in a case lodged against them by the Pune Police allegedly in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence.
Division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre heard the petitions filed by the three of them seeking quashing of the FIR against them.
The Bench has decided to wait for the “order that the Supreme Court passes in those matters.” And hence the interim relief will be continued.
Navlakha was put under house arrest, Teltumbde and Swamy had not been arrested so far.
The Maharashtra police raided and arrested several prominent human rights activists in India on August 28. Following this, a writ petition was filed in the SC by eminent Indians such as historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain among others. The SC disposed off the writ petition saying that the activists could avail relief from lower courts as per the law. All five activists-lawyers were under house arrest for a time period until October 26, a time period extended by the Supreme Court allowing them time to seek bail or other remedies in appropriate courts.
The review petition filed by Romila Thapar and others in the Supreme Court of India was dismissed in chambers on October 26 itself though news of the same only reached the public around noon on Saturday, October 27 when it was uploaded on the website. The Pune Sessions court rejected the pleas for bail of three activists Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Sudha Bhardwaj. Ferreira and Gonsalves were arrested on October 26, the day of the rejection of the bail while Bhardwaj was arrested on the next day.
Navlakha was released by Delhi HC after which he moved a petition in the Bombay HC seeking to quash his FIR.
All five activists-lawyers were under house arrest for a time period until October 26, a time period extended by the Supreme Court allowing them time to seek bail or other remedies in appropriate courts.
Both, Teltumbde and Swamy had been protected from arrests till October 31, 2018 after they moved the Bombay High Court.