Elagar: Navlakha not needed to give solvency certificate, seeks to complete process on Wed for jail release

Lawyers of human rights activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, on Tuesday informed a special court in Mumbai that the Supreme Court has waived the requirement for him to submit a solvency certificate, paving the way for his release from prison after which he will be placed under house arrest.

The activist's legal team told the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court they will produce surety, as stipulated by the SC last week, on Wednesday before the special judge for completing the process for his release from Navi Mumbai's Taloja jail.

The 70-year-old activist, who claims to suffer from multiple ailments, is in custody since April 2020 in the 2017-18 case. On November 10, the Supreme Court allowed Navlakha to be put under house arrest for a month due to his medical condition and said its order should be implemented within 48 hours.

However, he is still in prison as formalities for his release could not be completed. Once out of jail, Navlakha will be under house arrest at Belapur in Navi Mumbai.

On Monday, his lawyers - Wahab Khan and Chandni Chawla - approached the special NIA court and initiated the process for filing surety as per the condition set by the apex court to complete his release formalities.

However, the office of assistant registrar, city civil court, raised certain objections. It said the surety papers did not include a solvency certificate as per provisions of Criminal Manual, though surety of Rs two lakh is to be furnished.

A solvency certificate includes identity proof of the person like a ration card and an affidavit for the same.

On Tuesday, Navlakha approached the Supreme Court on the issue of the solvency certificate. The lawyer representing him told the apex court it will take up to six weeks to secure the solvency certificate in respect of surety to be provided as a precondition for the house arrest of the petitioner.

After hearing the plea the Supreme Court said, “Considering the submission and the circumstances, we deem it appropriate to waive the requirement of a solvency certificate for the petitioner to avail the benefit of our order.” “Since other adequate security proofs such as passport, Aadhaar card and PAN card have been provided, the trial court should not insist on a ration card as an additional proof of identity for the benefit of this court's order,” it added.

Later on Tuesday, Navlakha's legal team updated the special court about the modifications in the previous order pertaining to the house arrest of the accused. His lawyers then informed the special court they will produce the surety on Wednesday.

The special court adjourned the matter to Wednesday (November 16) and asked the NIA to file a report by then about the surety.

Meanwhile, Navlakha and his co-accused were produced before the special NIA court on Tuesday as the case was also listed for regular hearing.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.

According to the Pune police, people linked to banned Maoist groups had organised the programme.

The case, in which over a dozen activists and academicians have been named as accused, was later handed over to the NIA.