NIA court cites Elgar Parishad accused Navlakha nexus and complicity with Pakistani intel outfit ISI

MUMBAI: In a detailed order rejecting the bail plea of Elgar Parishad case accused Gautam Navlakha, a special NIA court cited his nexus and complicity with the Pakistani intelligence outfit ISI, pointing out he was introduced to an ISI general for recruitment by a man named ‘Ghulam Nabi Fai’.
The bail plea by Navlakha, who is under house arrest, was rejected on April 6 and the detailed order copy was made available about a week later.
Special judge Rajesh J Katariya said the NIA chargesheet says Navlakha, a lawyer and activist, had visited the US thrice to address Kashmiri American Council (KAC) conferences organized by Fai. “He was in touch with Ghulam Nabi Fai via email… and sometimes via phone. Ghulam Nabi Fai was arrested by the FBI in July 2011 for accepting funds from ISI and the Pakistan government. Applicant had written a letter to the…judge of the US court trying Ghulam Fai’s case for clemency,” he said. “It prima facie shows nexus between applicant and Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai.”
Denying the allegations, the 69-year-old Navlakha’s lawyers submitted that a document allegedly recovered from co-accused Surendra Gadling claims Navlakha collaborated with a person of an “intercontinental NGO funded by the imperialist forces” on Kashmir. The document alleged in 2009, when the protests in Kashmir were at its peak, Navlakha and the person from the NGO tried to create rifts among the leadership by using members of the Coalition of Civil Society. The document added that they went to Srinagar and met with Masrat Alam, who was organising massive youth protests with stone pelting, when he was in hiding to evade arrest.
They submitted another document allegedly recovered during investigations that showed Navlakha was against the ideology of CPI (Maoist) and was criticising it. They pointed out the party had a deep hostility towards him for his strong criticism of violence perpetrated by them and suspected him of being an agent of the government.
Referring to these submissions, the judge said: “Though there appears to be some deviating conduct on part of the applicant as pointed by advocate…, same cannot grant any benefit to applicant for bail.”
The judge said there are reasonable grounds to believe the charges are prima facie true. The supplementary chargesheet and documents relied on by the prosecution indicate Navlakha is an active member of a banned terrorist organization who underwent weapons training with the other accused and he carries out activities in furtherance of its objectives.