NEW DELHI: Lawyer-Activist Gautam Navlakha, one of the eight defendants charged in the Koregaon Bhima-Elgar Parishad case, was allegedly approached by senior officials from Pakistan’s spy agency ISI during one of his trips to the United States, seeking his help in recruit agents in India, NIA sources said on Friday. However, there were no details of Navlakha’s response.
Although the official statement released by the NIA on Friday mentioned that Navlakha’s “ties to Interservice Intelligence (ISI) also came to light” during the investigation, it did not elaborate.
NIA sources said ISI officials had allegedly met with Navlakha in the United States and allegedly sought his help. “The NIA has material evidence in this regard,” said one official.
The NIA did not disclose the timing of the visit to the United States when this alleged approach was made by “senior ISI officials.” There were also no details of Navlakha’s response to the approach.
An official said that “material evidence” about the Navlakha meeting has been presented to the court. “The accused will have the opportunity to challenge them during the trial,” added the officer.
It is normal practice for investigating bodies to confront the accused with evidence before presenting it to the court. The NIA, in its statement on Friday, said that Navlakha’s role and involvement in an alleged CPI (Maoist) conspiracy had occurred in secret communications with cadres from the team.
“He was assigned the task of uniting intellectuals against the government. He was part of some investigative committees and was assigned the task of recruiting cadres for the guerrilla activities of the CPI (Maoist). His links with Interservicios de Inteligencia (ISI) it also came to the fore, “he said.
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