Mumbai Apr 26 PTI The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by activist Gautam Navlakha an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case that he be placed under house custody instead of being lodged in prison A division bench of Justices S B Shukre and G A Sanap held that his grievances and apprehensions about lack of medical aid and basic facilities at the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai where he is currently lodged are ill-foundedThe Supreme Court has laid down in past cases that undertrial prisoners can be placed under house arrest depending on the allegations against them their age health condition and several other factors the judges said Navlakhas case did not meet any of the criteria the HC addedThe petitioner has stated that Taloja prison is overcrowded The conditions and environment of Taloja Central prison is not compatible to the health of the petitionerThe case of the petitioner does not fit in any of the criteria provided by SC The apprehension of the petitioner that he will not be provided medical aid and his life will be miserable in unhygienic conditions and atmosphere of the prison seems to be ill-founded the high court saidNavlakha 70 approached the HC earlier this year through his lawyer Yug Mohit Chaudhry complaining about poor facilities at the Taloja prisonHe was denied a chair pair of slippers spectacles and a P G Wodehouse book by the prison superintendent he saidPrison toilets were dirty and his health deteriorated in jail Navlakha claimedHis lawyer argued that Navlakha had no criminal antecedents had cooperated with the police and the National Investigation Agency NIA and there was no risk that he would abscond so his was a fit case for house custodyBut Taloja prison authorities denied Navlakhas claims about lack of facilitiesThe Maharashtra government told the HC that Navlakha was lodged in a high-security cell where he was the only inmate Inmates of high-security cells are responsible for cleaning the toilet themselves it addedThe high court in its order on Tuesday said the activist has the right to seek basic facilities in prison but he should have raised his grievances before the special NIA court which is hearing the Elgar Parishad caseEarlier this month while denying co-accused Varavara Rao permanent bail on medical grounds the HC had issued several directions to the Inspector General of Prisons asking the authority to deal with grievances regarding medical aid and basic facilitiesImplementation of the orders in Raos case should take care of Navlakhas problems too the judges saidOn Navlakhas argument that trial in the case was not likely to begin anytime soon the HC said It is not that the NIA is dragging its feet It has come on record that the conspiracy is deep-rooted and therefore despite filing of the charge-sheet the investigation is being conducted The NIA had also opposed Navlakhas plea arguing that house custody would lead to difficulties such as the inability to prevent him from using social mediaIt was common knowledge that India is a crowded nation and Mumbai is overcrowded hence the Taloja jail being overcrowded was not an adequate reason to grant house arrest the central probe agency had said PTI AYA ARU NSK KRK KRK

Mumbai Sep 29 PTI The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to retired Delhi Police ACP Sunderlal Parashar who was arrested by the NIA for allegedly providing a firearm to a man linked to a group attempting to revive Sikh militancy for a separate Khalistan Parashar 62 a Delhi resident who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency NIA in 2019 had approached the high court after a special court in Mumbai rejected his bail plea A bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar granted bail to him after noting that he had been accused of providing a country-made pistol and five live cartridges The central agency had applied the stringent section 7 read with section 25 1A of the Arms Act among other charges The high court aid that the above section prohibited possession of automatic sophisticated weapons that have a potential for mass destruction But in the present case Parashar was accused of having provided a country-made pistol it said A country-made pistol hardly satisfies the description of prohibited arms Thus the enhanced punishment prescribed under section 251A for contravention of section 7 of Arms Act may not be attracted in the facts of the case at hand the high court said It however added that Parashar could be charged under some other sections of the Arms Act and the Indian Penal Code Parashar had approached the high court after the special court in Mumbai rejected his bail plea In his plea filed through advocate Mubin Solkar Parashar had denied the charges against him He had said that he had been in touch with one of the alleged pro-Khalistan militants to gain information on some banned organisations while he was a police officer The HC bench quashed and set aside the special courts decision and granted Parashar bail till conclusion of trial in the case The appellant has suffered incarceration for a period of two years and five months Further incarceration of the appellant as an under-trial prisoner therefore appears wholly unjustifiable the HC said Indisputably the appellant had been a member of Delhi Police Force It cannot be said that the appellant has no roots in society In the context of the charge against the appellant it does not appear that the release of the appellant would either hamper the further investigation or put hindrance in the trial it said The high court however imposed several conditions on Parashars bail including a direction to him to appear before the NIA office in Mumbai once a month for the next six months PTI AYA ARU GK NP NP

Mumbai Aug 31 PTI The Bombay High Court has granted bail to a man accused of possessing commercial quantity of drugs after noting that the flowering tops of over 70 kg cannabis seized from him had not been weighed separately creating doubts over the actual quantity of the contraband In an order passed on August 29 Justice Anuja Prabhudesai granted bail to Hari Valse who was arrested and booked by the Narcotics Control Bureau NCB under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances NDPS Act following a raid at a warehouse in August 2017 During his bail hearing last week Valses lawyer Ganesh Gupte had argued that the alleged seized quantity of cannabis had included flower heads buds with pieces of stalks stems leaves and seeds and the authorities should have weighed the flowering or fruiting tops separately to determine the actual quantity of the drugs Taking note of the submission the court also observed that Valse had been in judicial custody since August 5 2017 and had no criminal antecedents and hence he deserved to be let out on bail It is however to be noted that the chemical analysis report reveals that the material forwarded for analysis contained flower buds with pieces of stalks stems leaves and seeds without quantifying the weight of flower tops the High Court said This fact prima facie raises a doubt whether ganja or cannabis seized from the warehouse of the accused was of commercial quantity as to attract the provisions under Section 20C of the NDPS Act it said The court released Valse on bail and directed him to deposit a bail bond of Rs 40000 PTI AYA ARU ARU