Delhi riots: HC order Tuesday on Jamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha’s bail plea in UAPA case

The counsel had said the accused should not be granted bail as there were statements of protected witnesses in the case which clearly showed the alleged role of Tanha in the conspiracy.
Delhi High Court (File Photo | Shekhar Yadav, EPS)
Delhi High Court (File Photo | Shekhar Yadav, EPS)

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court is scheduled to pronounce on Tuesday its order on a plea by Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, seeking bail in connection with a case related to larger conspiracy in the north-east Delhi riots in February last year.

A bench of Justices Siddharth Mirdul and A J Bhambhani had reserved its order on the bail plea on March 18. Tanha has challenged a trial court’s October 26, 2020 order dismissing his bail application on the ground that he allegedly played an active role in the entire conspiracy with reasonable grounds for believing the allegations to be prima facie true.

The high court, on June 4, granted interim custody bail to Tanha for two weeks from June 13 to June 26 to stay at a hotel here for studying and appearing in examinations scheduled from June 15.In the high court, the bail plea was opposed by the Delhi Police, represented through Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi and advocates Amit Mahajan and Rajat Nair, contending that the riots were premeditated and a conspiracy was hatched of which Tanha was a part.

The counsel had said the accused should not be granted bail as there were statements of protected witnesses in the case which clearly showed the alleged role of Tanha in the conspiracy.

Tanha was arrested in the case in May last year for allegedly being part of a ‘premeditated conspiracy’ in the riots.

Senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal and lawyer Sowjhanya Shankaran, representing Tahna, had submitted that they have challenged the refusal to grant him bail.

They had said the accused be granted the relief as he has been in custody since May 2020 and even the charge sheet has been filed.

The trial court, in its order of October 26 last year, had said that since there were reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against Tanha were prima facie true, the embargo created by Section 43D of UAPA applied for grant of bail to the accused and the bail plea was dismissed.

Asif Iqbal Tanha’s claim

Tanha’s counsel had claimed before the trial court that he was not present in Delhi during the riots and did not visit any of the protest sites where rioting and violence occurred.

(With Agency Inputs)

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