Bhima Koregaon case: Justice Ravindra Bhat withdraws from listening to plea of Gautam Navlakha

By PTI

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court choose Justice S Ravindra Bhat on Monday recused from listening to jailed activist Gautam Navlakha’s plea that he be positioned beneath home custody as a substitute of judicial custody within the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case.

As the listening to began, Justice Bhat, who was on the bench with Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, expressed his incapacity to be a part of the listening to however didn’t elaborate on the explanation.

The 70-year-old activist has appealed to the highest courtroom in opposition to the April 26 order of the Bombay High Court dismissing his plea.

The excessive courtroom had stated that his apprehensions in regards to the lack of medical support and insufficient primary amenities on the Taloja jail, the place he’s at the moment lodged as an undertrial, had been “ill-founded.”

Recently, 82-year-old activist P Varavara Rao was granted bail within the case by the apex courtroom.

“Justice Bhat cannot hear. This case is not to be listed before a bench with Justice Bhat. List before me on the administrative side. This case was listed before me and Justice KM Joseph last. We will have this case listed before a bench with Justice Joseph,” the CJI stated within the order on Navlakha’s attraction.

ALSO READ | ‘Hypertension, diabetes are frequent’: NIA opposes activist Gautam Navlakha’s plea for home arrest

Navlakha had informed the excessive courtroom that Taloja jail is overcrowded and the situations and surroundings of the jail should not suitable together with his well being.

“The case of the petitioner does not fit in any of the criteria (provided for by SC). The apprehension of the petitioner that he will not be provided medical aid and his life will be miserable in unhygienic conditions and atmosphere of the prison seems to be ill-founded,” the excessive courtroom had stated.

Navlakha had approached HC earlier saying that the Taloja jail had poor amenities.

He had stated that he had been denied a chair, a pair of slippers, his spectacles, and a PG Wodehouse ebook by the jail superintendent.

Navlakha had additionally stated that the jail bathrooms had been soiled and whereas in jail, his well being situation had deteriorated.

Besides Rao, the one accused on bail within the case is an activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj.

The Bombay High Court had granted aid to Bharadwaj final 12 months.

The case pertains to alleged inflammatory speeches made on the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the following day close to the Koregaon-Bhima conflict memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra metropolis.

The Pune Police had additionally claimed that the conclave was organised by individuals with alleged Maoist hyperlinks.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) later took over the probe within the matter.

Several activists and academicians have been arrested within the case together with Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and Gautam Navlakha.

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court choose Justice S Ravindra Bhat on Monday recused from listening to jailed activist Gautam Navlakha’s plea that he be positioned beneath home custody as a substitute of judicial custody within the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case.

As the listening to began, Justice Bhat, who was on the bench with Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, expressed his incapacity to be a part of the listening to however didn’t elaborate on the explanation.

The 70-year-old activist has appealed to the highest courtroom in opposition to the April 26 order of the Bombay High Court dismissing his plea.

The excessive courtroom had stated that his apprehensions in regards to the lack of medical support and insufficient primary amenities on the Taloja jail, the place he’s at the moment lodged as an undertrial, had been “ill-founded.”

Recently, 82-year-old activist P Varavara Rao was granted bail within the case by the apex courtroom.

“Justice Bhat cannot hear. This case is not to be listed before a bench with Justice Bhat. List before me on the administrative side. This case was listed before me and Justice KM Joseph last. We will have this case listed before a bench with Justice Joseph,” the CJI stated within the order on Navlakha’s attraction.

ALSO READ | ‘Hypertension, diabetes are frequent’: NIA opposes activist Gautam Navlakha’s plea for home arrest

Navlakha had informed the excessive courtroom that Taloja jail is overcrowded and the situations and surroundings of the jail should not suitable together with his well being.

“The case of the petitioner does not fit in any of the criteria (provided for by SC). The apprehension of the petitioner that he will not be provided medical aid and his life will be miserable in unhygienic conditions and atmosphere of the prison seems to be ill-founded,” the excessive courtroom had stated.

Navlakha had approached HC earlier saying that the Taloja jail had poor amenities.

He had stated that he had been denied a chair, a pair of slippers, his spectacles, and a PG Wodehouse ebook by the jail superintendent.

Navlakha had additionally stated that the jail bathrooms had been soiled and whereas in jail, his well being situation had deteriorated.

Besides Rao, the one accused on bail within the case is an activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj.

The Bombay High Court had granted aid to Bharadwaj final 12 months.

The case pertains to alleged inflammatory speeches made on the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the following day close to the Koregaon-Bhima conflict memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra metropolis.

The Pune Police had additionally claimed that the conclave was organised by individuals with alleged Maoist hyperlinks.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) later took over the probe within the matter.

Several activists and academicians have been arrested within the case together with Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and Gautam Navlakha.