2 years on, Navlakha walks out of jail into house-arrest

Nine days after the Supreme Court had allowed activist and Elgar Parishad case accused Gautam Navlakha to be moved from Taloja jail to house arrest, he finally made his way to his new CPI-owned home at Belapur in Navi Mumbai on Saturday.

- Rebecca Samervel

Released from the jail, where he had been held since 2020, at about 6.20 pm, the 70-year-old ailing activist reached home and was greeted with a hug by his partner Sahba Husain, who is the only person permitted to live with him.

Even though Navlakha was granted the relief almost 10 days ago, his lawyers have had to frantically run between the special NIA court presiding over the case in Mumbai and the Supreme Court in Delhi. On Friday, the Supreme Court took the NIA to task and ordered that the activist be shifted to the Belapur premises within 24 hours.