Teacher held for CAA stir in Lucknow gets bail as police fail to get proof

LUCKNOW: A local court has granted bail to Robin Verma, a management teacher in Shia PG College, after police failed to produce any evidence of his involvement in the violence during anti-Citizenship Act protests in Lucknow on December 19.
Robin, a faculty in the bachelor of business administration course in Shia PG College, was suspended after his arrest.
The bail was granted to Robin on Tuesday, but the copy of order was released on Wednesday.
While allowing the bail, additional district judge SS Pandey in his order noted that the accused was not named in the first FIR lodged in connection with the violence. The judge further said the prosecution admitted that police have not been able to find any evidence of Robin’s role in the violence.
The order also noted that medical records showed that injuries suffered by some policemen during violence were of superficial nature.
Earlier, Activists Sadaf Jafar, SR Darapuri and Deepak Kabir were also granted bail by a court when police failed to produce evidences against them.
The court directed Robin to furnish two sureties of Rs 50,000 each and a personal bond of the same amount and told him to cooperate in police investigation and not try to influence parties associated with the case in any manner.
In his petition, Robin said he is a contractual teacher in Shia PG College and was not named in the first FIR. He also said that he took part in protest because it was his fundamental right. However, he added, he did not indulge in violence. He claimed that police picked him up without any evidence from an eatery near Darulshafa in Lalbagh on December 20, but showed the arrest from near Begum Hazrat Mahal Park on December 21 in the records.
Opposing the bail plea, government counsel said that despite ban on protests, Robin assembled several people at Parivartan Chowk on December 19 to state protests which ended in violence. The counsel claimed that Robin's arrest was based on evidences. SHO Hazratganj Dhirendra Pratap Kushwaha, the investigating officer in the case, in his statement said that Robin was identified as one of the protesters by some policemen, including sub-inspectors Vijay Shankar Tripathi and Sandeep Kumar Tiwari, during investigations and subsequently arrested near Begum Hazrat Mahal Park on December 21.
Kushwaha submitted a detailed account of violence on December 19 and informed the court that all the accused arrested were booked for rioting, arson, attempt to murder, causing obstruction to deter public servant from performing duty and criminal conspiracy among others.