[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE Supreme Court has granted interim protection from arrest to rights activist Gautam Navlakha till October 15 in the Bhima-Koregoan case.
The top court also directed the Maharastra police to produce all relevant papers and evidence against 65-year-old civil rights activist on the next date of hearing.
The two-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta today heard the petition filed by Navlakha after five judges of the Supreme Court recused themselves from hearing the case.
On September 30, Chief Justice of India RanjanGogoi had recused himself from hearing the plea, without stating any reasons. Later, on October 1, Justices N V Ramana, R Subhash Reddy and B R Gavai recused themselves from hearing Navlakha’s plea.
The state of Maharashtra had filed a caveat in the Supreme Court on September 16 in the present case.
Navlakha moved to Supreme court challenging the Bombay High Court judgement of September 13 whereby a two-judge bench of Justices Ranjit More and Dangre refused to quash the FIR registered against him and said that there was “prima facie material against him” referring to the sealed envelope submitted by the Additional Public Prosecutor ArunaPai.
The Bombay High Court granted protection from arrest to Navlakha which was due to expire today.
Pune police had booked Navlakha and other activists under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Indian Penal Code.
Besides Navlakha, four other rights activists – Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and SudhaBharadwaj – are accused in the case.
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