Delhi Riots: Court Rejects Bail Plea Of Accused In Larger Conspiracy Case

 A Delhi court on Wednesday dismissed the bail plea of Athar Khan, an accused in the larger conspiracy case related to the Northeast Delhi riots of February 2020. Athar Khan is an accused in a case registered by Delhi Police under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA for alleged conspiracy.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of Karkardooma Court dismissed the bail plea after hearing the submissions of counsel for the accused and special public prosecutor for Delhi Police.

"On the perusal of the chargesheet and accompanying documents, for the limited purpose of the bail, I am of the opinion that allegations against the accused Athar Khan are prima facie true," the judge said.

The court observed, "since there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against the accused Athar Khan is prima facie true, hence, the embargo created by Section 43D of UAPA applies for a grant of bail to the accused and also, the embargo contained in Section 437 Cr.P.C.

The court took the note of statement given by protected witness Pluto. Protected witness Pluto in his statement stated that he cooks Biryani. Before the riots on February 20 and 21, 2020, five persons, namely Athar, Shahdab, Salim Munna, Saleem Khan and Rizwan Siddiqui came and gave him Rs. 10,000 for a biryani order and told him that biryani has to be sent to Ayyaz's office at the basement at Chand Bagh. He gave some money in advance and rest was to be paid by Ayyaz.

The court took note of the statement which read that Athar was telling others that the time has come to burn Delhi. Rahul Roy had called him and all preparations have been done. Arms, petrol, etc, have been filled. There is no shortage of money and Delhi will be destroyed. Their issues will not be settled till 100-200 people are killed and 100-200 places are targeted. He asked them to be ready and they all said that they were with him. In the meantime, Ayyaz came and gave him money and he left.

The court also took note of the submissions made by the counsel for the accused. It was submitted that Athar Khan was initially made as a witness, but during the course of the investigation, his role as an accused in this case emerged. It would not be a ground to contend that the case itself is false or that accused is falsely implicated.

It was also submitted that right to protest is a fundamental right, but the chargesheet, as filed, presents the case of conspiracy under the guise of protest. The prosecution alleges a conspiracy leading to riots.

The Counsel for the accused also submitted that the prosecution's argument that the accused used to provoke people to give speeches and handle social media is also vague. The prosecution has not produced any video or CCTV footage where the accused can be seen attacking or carrying any weapon or doing any act which raises any suspicion towards any terrorist activity. No video showing the accused delivering provocative speeches has been filed.

On the other hand, the bail plea was opposed by SPP Amit Prasad. He submitted that accused Athar was one of the organizer of the Chand Bagh protest site where inflammatory speeches were given. This is supported by the statements of various witnesses like Venu, Gold, HC Sunil, and Ct. Sunil and Ct. Gyan.

It was also argued that at the time of riots, accused Athar was present in Northeast Delhi. The accused was connected with accused persons namely Devangana, Meeran, Gulfisha, Khalid, Ishrat, Shadab, Natasha and Safoora, Saleem Khan, Saleem Malik, Shadab and Suleman (Proclaimed Offender).

As per the chargesheet, the accused Athar took part in the conspiracy. It is not necessary that in a case of a conspiracy, every accused should play part in every aspect of the conspiracy, SPP had argued.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)