The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted regular bail to civil liberties activist and Bhima Koregaon violence accused Gautam Navlakha with a pre-condition that he shall pay the government ₹20 lakh for expenditure incurred towards the facilities extended to him by the NIA for his “house arrest”.

Navlakha had been under incarceration for over four years but he was granted “house arrest” because of his ailments and advancing age. This triggered a controversy with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) questioning the “special privilege” to the accused and insisting that he should pay ₹1.64 crore incurred towards providing round-the-clock surveillance to him since November 2022.

“Prima facie, we are of the view that there is (no need) for extending the interim order of (bail) stay. The appellant has been in incarceration for more than four years. Trial will take years and years… we direct the appellant to pay (₹20) lakhs. This amount will have to be paid as a precondition for bail. The appellant shall cooperate with the trial,” a bench of Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice S.V.N. Bhatti said in the order.

The court passed the order while dealing with an appeal filed by the NIA challenging the bail granted to Navlakha by Bombay High Court in December 2023 and an application by the activist presently under “house arrest” at a library building in Mumbai to be shifted to an alternative location within the city.

Soon after the bail was granted, Navlakha’s partner Sahba Husain told The Telegraph: “It is a huge relief as the burden of confinement is over. We have no savings and I am depending on contributions from friends and family to prepare a demand draft of ₹20 lakh, which I must submit to the Navi Mumbai police commissioner for Gautam to be released on bail.

“I see it as a partial victory, as I don’t know after how many years the trial would begin and for how many years it would go on. He cannot come home to Delhi but we are looking forward to stepping out in the city he lived in several years ago, walk on the streets and meet friends…. One has to fight to stay patient and sane. We have hope in our lawyers and the judiciary,” she said.

Navlakha is under house arrest in Mumbai following the interim stay granted by the apex court on January 5 this year after it stayed the operation of the bail granted to him by the high court in
the Bhima Koregaon violence where he is facing prosecution under the IPC and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for alleged Maoist links.

While passing the order on Tuesday, the top court considered that Navlakha is 72 years old and said the appellant had been in jail for four years and the six co-accused have already been granted bail.

In India, there is no statutory concept of “house arrest”. On September 1, 2023, the Supreme Court found faults in the order of November 2022 by another bench by which it had permitted Navlakha’s “house arrest”, saying such an order “might set a wrong precedent” and “to do this for one person might have…effect”.

Additional reporting by Pheroze L. Vincent