Maharashtra files caveat in Bhima Koregaon case

New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) The Maharashtra government on Tuesday filed a caveat in the Supreme Court anticipating Gautam Navlakha's appeal against the Bombay High Court's refusal to quash an FIR filed against him by the state police in the Bhima Koregoan case.

A caveat means that the party urge the court to not pass any order without hearing it.

Navlakha along with Sudha Bhardwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira are accused in the Bhima Koregoan case and for alleged links with the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist.

The Bombay High Court on September 13 rejected Navlakha's plea seeking to quash the FIR filed against him early last year by the Pune Police for his alleged Maoist links and involvement in the Bhima-Koregaon and Elgar Parishad cases.

However, accepting a plea by his lawyer, Yug Choudhary, the court extended the interim relief by three weeks, granted to Navlakha earlier in the Elgar Parishad case, to ensure that the police does not take coercive action against him, and also enable him approach the Supreme Court for relief.

Navlakha, along with nine other prominent human rights and civil liberties activists were arrested in the case so far by Pune Police from different parts of India, for their role in the December 31, 2017 Elgar Parishad held in Pune, which served as a trigger for the caste riots in Bhima-Koregaon on January 1, 2018.

Among other things, they were charged with alleged links with the banned CPI-Maoist, a conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to overthrow the elected government.