Elgar Parishad: HC extends relief from arrest to 3 activists

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court Thursday extended till December 14, the interim protection from arrest to activists Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde and Stan Swamy, in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.

A bench of Justices B P Dharamadhikari and Sarang Kotwal also directed the Pune Police to file an affidavit by December 5 this year on its probe into the case.

The bench's direction came after the state's counsel, additional government pleader Aruna Pai opposed a plea filed by Navlakha seeking that the FIR in the case against him be quashed.

Pai told the bench that while the police had "enough material evidence against Navlakha, it could not yet make the same information public".

She added that at the present stage, Swamy and Teltumbde were mere "suspects" in the case and that the police's probe against the two, and the other activists was still ongoing.

The bench, however, took a strong exception to Pai's statement and said that the prosecution was bound to place on record all the relevant information in the case.

"File an affidavit putting on record whatever stage your investigation is right now. Since you are saying, you can't make the details public or known to the other party, place the reasons behind your inability to make it known, also in the affidavit. All that is necessary and relevant to the case must be brought on record," the bench said.