Give conditions for Navlakha’s house arrest, SC tells NIA, Legal News, ET LegalWorld – Legal Firms

NEW DELHI: A Supreme Court bench of Justices K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy on Wednesday asked the NIA, which is the prosecuting agency and opposed Gautam Navlakha’s plea for house arrest, to spell out on Thursday the conditions that could be imposed on the social activist if his plea to come out of jail was allowed in order to ensure that he didn’t misuse his “measured freedom”.

Pressing for the activist’s plea, senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the bench that he was suffering from various ailments and his medical conditions were to be monitored that was not possible within the jail. Reading out the medical report filed by Jaslok Hospital, Sibal said his blood pressure was to be checked twice in a day and also his sodium level.

Additional solicitor general S V Raju, appearing for the NIA, said that there was no need to allow him to come out of jail and he assured the court he would be provided all medical facilities inside jail and would be taken to any hospital of his choice if needed. The ASG said that as per the medical report there was nothing wrong with him and he would be provided mattress and cots as suggested by doctors and also home-made food.

Countering Raju’s submission, Sibal said there was nothing wrong with Stan Swamy also but he died in custody. Asthe court suggested the ASG consider plea of the accused in light of his old age of 70 years, Raju stiffly opposed and said that it would set a wrong precedent and it would also be difficult to monitor his activities under house arrest. He said Navlakha was in touch with terrorist outfit IS and Kashmiri extremists in addition to indulging in Maoist activities.