On Thursday, the Supreme Court allowed human rights activist Gautam Navlakha, who has been in Taloja jail since April 2020 in the Bhima Koregaon case, to be placed under house arrest for a month. The activist, who is 70 years old, said that he was suffering from various health ailments and had asked to be shifted out of jail.
While ordering house arrests, courts have the power to impose conditions as they deem fit, so that the trial is not hampered. In a 2021 case, the Supreme Court ruled that house arrests can also be used as a form of detention. It made a list of illustrative conditions, such as the age and health of the accused, where courts could sentence a person to house arrest.
Navlakha was arrested in 2018 for alleged conspiring to foment caste riots outside Pune in January that year. Fifteen other activists, academics and lawyers were also arrested in the case. They have also been accused of plotting to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi and of having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
Almost four years later, the trial has not commenced in the case. Forensic experts have claimed that the evidence against these activists might have been planted…
