2020 Delhi riots: Court grants bail to Ishrat Jahan in larger conspiracy case

PTI, Mar 15, 2022, 8:23 AM IST

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A Delhi court on Monday granted bail to former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan in the case concerning the larger conspiracy behind the North East Delhi riots of February 2020.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat said the role of the accused in the case, on a prima facie consideration, has persuaded the court to allow her application in spite of the embargoes contained in the law.

The judge directed that Jahan be released on bail on her furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with two local sureties in the like amount. Jahan, along with several others, has been booked under the anti-terror law — Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) — in the case for being the ”masterminds” of the February 2020 riots, which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

The violence had erupted during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

In the bail order, the court noted that the charge sheet has alleged the existence of a ”premediated conspiracy” involving various groups and individuals, who caused disruption through ”chakka-jam and pre-planned protests at 23 sites” in order to incite violence, and that the alleged acts by the accused persons were covered by the definition of “terrorist act” under the UAPA.

It said that the footages filed by the prosecution showed a ”concerted and pre-mediated effort of mobilisation of rioters who are armed and who ultimately block the main Wazirabad road and attacked police personnel in the most brutal manner”. ”The target was to block roads at mixed population areas and encircle the entire area completely stopping the entry and exit of citizens living there and then creating panic to attack on police personnel by women protesters in front only followed by other ordinary people and engulfing the area into a riots and the same would be covered by the definition of terrorist act,” stated the court.

”The weapons used, manner of attack and the destruction caused shows it to be preplanned. Acts which threaten the unity and integrity of India and causes friction in communal harmony and creates terror in any section of the people, by making them feel surrounded resulting in violence, is also a terrorist act,” it added.

The court, however, stated that as per the charge sheet or the statement of witnesses, Jahan was neither the one who ”created the idea of chakka-jam” nor was she a member of any of the incriminating WhatsApp groups or organisations. It said that the accused was involved in the protest site at Khureji which was not located in the area where the riots took place and she was neither physically present in North-East Delhi for riots nor has her name “cropped up in the flurry of calls or in any CCTV footage or in any conspirational meetings”.

The court recorded that although there are several other allegations against the accused, including that she gave provocative speeches and that she received money in her bank account which was used for the protest site and for purchasing weapons, at present, it was concerned with the bail application and that too before charge.

”This order does not discharge the accused from this case. The entire conspiracy, as spelt out in the charge-sheet, as far as it ascribes the role of accused Ishrat Jahan, who is a woman, for the limited purpose of bail application on a prima facie considerations, persuades this court to allow the present application for bail despite the embargoes in CrPC and UAPA,” the court said.

The court directed Jahan to not leave the city without permission, indulge in any other criminal activity or tamper with evidence and influence the investigation. It further asked the accused to cooperate with the investigation and attend the court on every date of hearing.

The Delhi Police had opposed the bail application, saying that the riots were not spontaneous but a planned violence having deep rooted conspiracy and that Jahan delivered provocative speeches and was involved in raising funds through suspicious means as well as procuring weapons.

Earlier Jahan was granted interim bail in June 2020 for 10 days to get married and was directed not to tamper with the evidence or influence the witnesses. Besides Jahan, activist Khalid Saifi, Umar Khalid, JNU students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and several others have also been booked under the stringent law in the case.