The NIA claimed that Navlakha had visited the US thrice to address the ‘Kashmiri American Council Conference’ organised by Ghulam Nabi Fai. Navlakha also sought clemency for Ghulam Nabi Fai, who was arrested in the US.
Mumbai,UPDATED: Feb 21, 2023 21:50 IST
Human rights activist Gautam Navlakha is an accused in the Elghar Parishad-Maoist links case. (File Photo)
By Vidya : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has opposed the bail plea of Elgar Parishad accused Gautam Navlakha, claiming that he was an active member of banned terror outfit CPI (Maoist) and had links with a Pakistani secret agent.
The NIA said that Gautam Navlakha sought clemency for an ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) agent, who was arrested in the US, in an American court.
THE PAKISTAN CONNECT
The NIA, in its affidavit, claimed that Navlakha had visited the US thrice to address the ‘Kashmiri American Council Conference’ organised by Ghulam Nabi Fai, with whom Navlakha was in touch with regularly.
“Ghulam Nabi Fai was arrested by the FBI in July 2011 for accepting funds from the ISI and Pakistan government. It is established that Gautam Navlakha had written a letter to the judge of the US court trying Ghulam Nabi Fai’s case for clemency,” NIA said.
“Further, it is also established that Gautam Navlakha was introduced to a Pakistani ISI General for his recruitment by Ghulam Nabi Fai on the direction of the ISI, showing his nexus and complicity with Ghulam Nabi Fai and Pakistani ISI,” the agency said in its affidavit.
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NIA has filed an affidavit of 28 pages in which they stressed that Navlakha had “committed acts that had a direct impact on the national security, unity and sovereignty” of the country.
OTHER ISSUES
The affidavit further states that Navlakha had delivered speeches at different forums and programmes on issues related to the Kashmir separatist movement and the Maoist movement.
The agency, in its affidavit, claimed that Navlakha was an active member of the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit and that he was in possession of incriminating documents related to this banned outfit that were accessible exclusively to party members.
“Navlakha has deep links with CPI (Maoist) and he espouses Maoist ideology and anti-government utterances through his various lectures and videos,” the agency said in its affidavit, adding the object was to overthrow the government established by law.
The affidavit, filed by Advocate Sandesh Patil on behalf of the NIA, claimed that Navlakha used to assign tasks for recruitment of cadres for the guerrilla activities of CPI (Maoist) and was also aware of young activists from Delhi, Mumbai and Chhattisgarh who were ready to join and serve the Maoist revolution.
“Navlakha visited ‘Dandkaranya’ (an advancing guerrilla zone of Indian revolution) with Jan Myrdal, who is a Swedish author and controversial in his politics for Marxist Leninist,” the affidavit said.
The NIA claimed that Navlakha was trying to portray his criminal activities as work for human rights. “It is not the case of the prosecution that the accused (Navlakha) was merely supporting, associated or have membership with a banned terror organisation but the prosecution case is that the accused had an active role in furthering CPI (Maoist) activities,” the NIA said.
Navlakha was arrested in August 2018 from his residence in Delhi by the Pune Police, which investigated the Maoist connection initially in the Elgar Parishad case. Later, the NIA took over the case.
Navlakha is presently under house arrest, permitted by the Supreme Court. He had approached the Bombay High court seeking bail after a special court rejected his plea. The bench of Justices AS Gadkari and PD Naik will be hearing Navlakha’s petition on February 27.
