Social activist Gautam Navlakha was released and handed over to the Mumbai Police (file photo).

Social activist Gautam Navlakha has been released from jail.

He has been handed over to the Mumbai Police for house arrest.

Gautam Navlakha, a 70-year-old social worker who has been in jail since 2020 in the Bhima-Koregaon case, was released today following the Supreme Court's order to put him under house arrest.

Following his appeal on health and medical grounds, the court had ordered that he be kept under house arrest.

The court yesterday rejected the agency's contention that he had "deliberately misled" the court about his health.

The court had yesterday ordered the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to transfer him to house arrest. 

Gautam Navlakha was in jail since April 2020 in a case related to the Bhima-Koregaon violence in Maharashtra on January 1.

He was arrested a day after he allegedly delivered an inflammatory speech at a convention of the Elgar Parishad.

The Pune police had claimed that the conference was supported by the Maoists.

The court last week ordered that he be shifted to house arrest within 48 hours but the release was delayed.

The court had reacted sharply to this yesterday.

The court accused the NIA of adopting a "strategy of delay".