Shedding light on the Attorney General Tushar MehtaUnder the shocking argument that Navlakha chose Communist Party-owned premises for his house arrest depot, a panel of judges KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy asked, “Isn’t CPI a recognized political party? first floor of that building, which is a residential unit.”
The court also set aside Mehta’s arguments about Navlakha’s alleged ties to Pakistan’s ISI, the suppression of his relationship with Dr S Kothari, who headed the Jaslok hospital team which provided a health assessment report and links with Maoist organizations to justify the call for recall of the previous order.
Can’t Tackle Naxalism With Kid Gloves: Govt
Bench said: “We had approved the order for his house arrest after hearing extensive discussions on all these points.”
When the other Attorney General SV Raju pointed out that there were several security breaches at the location chosen by Gautam Navlakhathe bench said: “We had incorporated all the conditions as explained by NIA to prevent Navlakha from interacting with any strangers except her female partner. Now, it cannot be argued that while having the strength of the state, one cannot stop a sick 70-year-old man from breaching the security cover. Do you understand what you are discussing?”
The premises owned by the CPI also house a public library.
When the two law officers continued to force their objections, Bench said, “If the NIA is trying to find loopholes to defy our orders, we will take a serious look at it.” However, it did incorporate some minor additional security measures into its Nov. 10 order, including tracking the CCTV by police personnel around the clock and said he would resume the matter on December 13.
Resigning himself to making further attempts to deepen the NIA’s concern over Navlakha who was moved out of Taloja Jail, Attorney General Tushar Mehta said, “There are a number of prisoners who are over 70 and suffer from more serious and yet they are treated in the prison hospital. There must be equal treatment.” As a parting shot, he said, “Naxalism cannot be tackled with kid gloves. That’s the perception I have.”
On 10 November, SC had allowed Navlakha’s house arrest for four weeks, appreciating sympathetically his health problems, old age, lack of criminal record and little chance of completing his trial in the near future. He had imposed all the conditions suggested by the NIA, including a complete denial of phones, laptops and the Internet.
The court had warned that improper use of the conditions of house arrest would result in the cancellation of the concession granted to Navlakha, who is accused in the Elgar Parishad case along with 15 other defendants. The court said it was imposing strict conditions to ensure that its house arrest order would not be misused “not for a microsecond”.
