The Supreme Court
on Friday extended the stay imposed by the Bombay High Court on the operation
of its order granting bail to activist Gautam Navlakha in the Elgar
Parishad-Maoist links case.
A bench of
Justices M M Sundresh and S V N Bhatti also directed the top court's Registry
to place before Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud the National
Investigation Agency's (NIA) plea to decide on tagging the petition with cases
of other accused.
The Supreme Court
said it was not inclined to say anything on the merits of the case.
The Bombay High
Court had on December 19 last year granted bail to Navlakha but stayed its
order for three weeks after the NIA sought time to file an appeal in the top
court.
Navlakha, who was
arrested in August 2018, was in November last year permitted by the Supreme
Court to be placed under house arrest. He is currently residing in Navi Mumbai.
The case relates
to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in
Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claim triggered violence the next day
near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial on the outskirts of the western
Maharashtra city.
As many as 16
activists have been arrested in the case and five of them are currently out on
bail.