Delhi court dismisses bail plea of accused in north-east Delhi violence, says 'conscious of fierceness of riots'

A Delhi court while dismissing the bail petition of an accused allegedly involved in the violence near Chand Bagh Pulia, which took place earlier this year in north-east Delhi, stated that it was "conscious of the fierceness of the riots" which had broken out in the area.

"This court is conscious of the fact that there are a cluster of cases in the area at or around Chand Bagh Pulia, which shows that the communal riots over there were really fierce, wherein large scale damage had occurred to public and private properties, several persons got injured and IB Officer Ankit Sharma was brutally murdered," the court stated.

Duty Judge Vinod Yadav, Karkardooma Court on Saturday, rejected the bail petition of Gulfam, stating that "Considering the gravity of the offence and the fact that the eyewitnesses are residents of the same locality and if released on bail at this stage, the applicant may make an endeavour to threaten, intimidate, or liquidate the witnesses. As such, I am not inclined to admit the applicant on bail. The bail application is accordingly dismissed."

Advocate Anis Mohammed appeared for the applicant and argued that the applicant is a young student, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts (B.A) from Delhi University and also helps his father in selling clothes.

The advocate said that he has been in judicial custody since May 5, 2020, and has been falsely implicated in the matter. He also said that there is no legally sustainable evidence against him and there was an unexplained delay in filing the FIR.

He argued that the applicant is not seen in any of the CCTV footages, has clean past antecedents. It is further argued that the investigation in the matter is complete; chargesheet has already been filed; the applicant is no more required for any custodial interrogation and no useful purpose would be served by keeping him behind bars, as the trial in the matter is likely to take a long time; and furthermore the applicant is not a previous convict.

Whereas Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad while opposing the bail, argued that this is one of the cases of riots near "Chand Bagh Pulia", near the house of Tahir Hussain, the principal accused in many cases. The FIR in the matter was registered on March 1, 2020, after the injured was found fit to make a statement. It is argued that the riots at or around the Chand Bagh Pulia were "very fierce" from 23.02.2020 till 26.02.2020. Several persons were injured; public and private property(ies) worth crores of rupees were vandalised, faced arson and torched. One IB Officer namely Ankit Sharma was killed.

Court noted that "from the evidence of a number of witnesses recorded in the matter, it is prima facie apparent that the "riotous mob" armed with "lethal weapons" had engaged in vandalism, looting and torching of public and private properties and their main objective was to cause maximum damage to the lives and properties of persons belonging to other community.

"Therefore, at this stage, it cannot be said with certainty that the applicant did not have a common object with the other persons of unlawful assembly. The common object of this kind of riotous mob can be easily inferred therefrom," he contested.

The court was hearing one of a matter pertains to the violence took place in the month of February this year, in the northeast area of Delhi between groups supporting and opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which led to the deaths of at least 53 people. 

-ANI

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