Updated: December 8, 2020 9:41:02 pm
The activist and the Elgaar Parishad case accused Gautam Navlakha of stealing his glasses from Taloja prison on November 27.
The Bombay High Court said on Tuesday that workshops should be organized so that the jailers and prison authorities understand the needs of the inmates. The observation came in response to a claim from the relatives of the activist and defendant in the Elgaar Parishad case Gautam Navlakha who had his glasses stolen from Taloja prison on November 27 and was denied a new pair arriving for speed.
His family alleged that, despite the activist being “almost blind without them”, the prison authorities did not allow him to call his relatives for three days. They added that they had mailed a new pair of glasses, but prison officials refused to accept it.
“We need to hold workshops for jailers. How are such small items denied? These are all human considerations, ”said the bench of the SS Shinde and MS Karnik division of judges.
The court made the observation while listening to petitions filed by members of Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural organization, and activists and Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor against their ‘illegal’ arrest by the National Investigative Agency in the Elgaar Parishad case.
Gorkhe and Gaichor were active members of ‘Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyaan’, a body that had organized the Elgaar parishad, an evening conclave held at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, ahead of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.
In September, the activists claimed in special court that the NIA forced them to record confessional statements.
Lead counsel Mihir Desai, representing the defendants, said the NIA special court in Mumbai was not a competent authority to take them into custody.
Attorney Sandesh Patil, defending the NIA, sought time to respond to the statement, which the court accepted.
“The crime is alleged to have occurred in Pune. The case was initially heard at the UAPA Court in Pune. However, after the NIA took over the investigation, it was transferred to a special NIA court in Mumbai, when there is a special NIA court in Pune, ”argued Desai.
Earlier, in the context of another case about frequent sedition charges brought by the police by posts on social media criticizing the government, the same bank had said: “Why are police officers invoking IPC Section 124-A? Hold workshops for police officers. “
The court, on Tuesday, also referred to its previous order allowing co-defendants, Varavara Rao, 81-year-old poet and activist, who is also housed in the Taloja jail, tor be transferred to the Nanavati Hospital for treatment until new orders.
“Our consideration was limited to allowing him to be transferred to Nanavati Hospital. Humanity is important, everything else will come later, ”said the bank.
Telugu poet and writer Varavara Rao. (File photo)
The court asked how many defendants in Elgaar Parishad’s case were elderly. To that, Desai said that while two of them were over 75 years old, almost 7 to 8 were over 60.
However, the court charged the defendants that, on the issue of granting provisional bail, it was bound by previous judgments, including that of the Supreme Court, which last year overturned an order of the High Court of Delhi. release on bail to Jammu and Kashmir businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, arrested by the NIA on terrorist financing charge.
The HC has set December 21 as the next date to hear the petitions in the case.
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