MUMBAI: Bombay HC on Monday refused default bail to activist Gautam Navlakha (69), accused of alleged Maoist links in the 2018 Elgar Parishad case.
Navlakha, lodged at Taloja Central jail, had appealed against an NIA court’s rejection of bail on the grounds that his ‘house arrest’ constituted custody. The HC excluded his 34 days of ‘house arrest’ in 2018 from the duration of custody within which the chargesheet had to be filed by holding that the provision required such custody to be first authorised by a magistrate.
His case argued by Kapil Sibal was that the chargesheet against him wasn’t filed within 90 days as prescribed by law in his case, thus he was entitled to ‘default’ bail, under CrPC. The CrPC provision “necessarily presupposes a detention authorised by a magistrate,” said the HC bench of justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik. The HC agreed with the submission of counsel SV Raju for NIA that only when detention is authorised by a magistrate after arrest, can the custody period of 90 days be counted.
The HC said the question before it was whether the ‘house arrest’ period constituted custody under the ‘default bail’ provision in CrPC. It also noted that during the ‘house arrest’, police had no access to Navlaka nor the occasion to interrogate him. They relied on an SC ruling which said for detention under police custody, the police ought to have access to the accused.