Maharashtra govt denies phone call access to jailed activist Navlakha

The Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that it could not allow activist Gautam Navlakha to make phone calls from prison since he was facing charges of terrorism.

Navlakha is an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

The state’s counsel Sangeeta Shinde placed before a bench led by Justice Nitin Jamdar a resolution that the Maharashtra government had issued on March 25 this year imposing such prohibition.

As per the resolution signed by state Inspector General of Police, a coin box facility for inmates to make phone calls is available in prisons, including the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai, where Navlakha and others accused in the case are lodged as undertrials.