Notice To Delhi Government On Riot Case Accused's Appeal Over Bail Denial

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Government of the National Capital Territory (NCT) on an appeal of Gulfisha Fatima, an accused in the Northeast Delhi violence larger conspiracy case, challenging the trial court order denying bail in the case.

The Division Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar sought a response from the Government of NCT Delhi (GNCTD) and fixed the matter for its hearing on July 14. The same bench is also examining several other appeals in the larger conspiracy case, related to the North East Delhi Violence, including Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and Khalid Saifi.

The trial court on March 17 dismissed the bail plea of Gulfisha Fatima.

She was booked by the Delhi Police Special Cell under the sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). It has been alleged that she was organising a protest at Jafrabad. Court had held that the allegations against the accused are prima facie true.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat also said, "On the perusal of the charge-sheet and accompanying documents, for the limited purpose of the bail, I am of the opinion that allegation against the accused Gul alias Gulfisha is prima facie true."

The prosecution had argued that there is sufficient material, available on record, to establish that the accusation against Gulfisha is true and hence the bail application must be dismissed.

Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad argued that in this entire conspiracy, various organizations like Pinjra Tod, AAZMI, SIO, SFI, etc had participated. There was a centrality of JCC in the ecosystem.

Earlier, Delhi Police had said that as many as 23 protest sites were created in Muslim majority areas, close to the mosques/majar and close to the main roads. The idea was to escalate the protest to chakka-jam, once the critical was generated, and to lead to the violence against police and others, at the appropriate time.

Meanwhile, Advocate Mehmood Pracha on behalf of Gulfisha, argued, "The accused Gulfisha was only participating in the anti-CAA protest, which is not a crime. In fact, such protests were happening all across India. The chargesheet is silent on the aspect of why the violence took place in Delhi. There was also a pro-CAA protest going on (in the country), which is not reflected in the contents of the chargesheet but is mentioned in other FIRs registered by the Delhi Police in the Northeast violence cases."

In northeast Delhi, large scale violence broke out in February 2020. According to the police, 53 people died and hundreds were injured during the violence.

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