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The Supreme Court on Friday extended the stay imposed by the Bombay High Court on the implementation of its December 19 order granting bail to activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case.
A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and SVN Bhatti extended the stay and said it was not inclined to say anything on the merits of the case. It further directed the Supreme Court's Registry to place before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) plea to decide on tagging the petition with cases of other accused. On December 19, 2023, the High Court had granted bail to Navlakha but stayed its order for three weeks after the NIA sought time to file an appeal in the apex court. The apex court in August last year allowed Navlakha's plea to place him under house arrest in Mumbai considering his health condition and old age. Later it had extended his house arrest. Navlakha, arrested in August 2018, had moved the top court requesting that he be placed under house arrest instead of judicial custody in Taloja jail, Maharashtra. Navlakha, one of the several civil liberties activists in the Bhima Koregaon case, has been booked under stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for an alleged conspiracy to topple the government. He was arrested by the probe agency in April 2020. Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted bail to 82-year-old activist P Varavara Rao in the case (ANI)
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