A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to nine protesters, mostly college students, who were arrested during a protest against air pollution at Delhi’s India Gate last Monday, during which several police personnel were allegedly attacked with pepper spray.
Police had said that though people had gathered on November 23 to protest against the poor air quality in the Capital, they “raised slogans in support of Naxalites”.
Two FIRs were lodged against the protesters under charges related to assault, obstruction of public servants and outraging the modesty of women. In one of them, lodged at Parliament Street police station, linked to an alleged scuffle between the protesters and the police, all 17 accused have now been granted bail — eight last week and nine on Tuesday.
The second FIR was related to alleged recovery of pepper sprays, and “Naxal links” of protesters. In this case, the court reserved its order on the bail pleas of seven. So far, 21 out of the 23 protesters have been named as accused in the two cases. The order in this case is expected on Thursday.
“The concerns regarding absconding or tampering with evidence can be addressed by imposing reasonable conditions. Further custodial detention is not necessary, as the IO has not sought police custody and investigation does not appear to require incarceration,” said Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Sahil Monga of Patiala House Court.
“I have perused the reply. A significant portion of the objections raised by the IO relate not to the present FIR 109/25 PS Parliament Street, but to investigation in FIR 102/25 PS Kartavya Path, including allegations of protest at India Gate, recovery of pepper sprays, and criminal antecedents of certain individuals. These pertain to a different incident and cannot be a ground to oppose bail in the present FIR,” he added.
In this case, the accused were represented by advocates Nizam Pasha, Sowjhanya Shankaran, Ahmad Ibrahim and Deeksha Dwivedi.
Story continues below this ad
In the second case being heard before JMFC Aridaman Singh Cheema of Patiala House Court, defence lawyers argued that being part of WhatsApp groups which organised the protests linked to air pollution was not a crime and that what happened at the site was not in their control.
“Their future is bright, they’ll work for the country,” said one counsel while arguing for bail.
“You can’t swim in two boats. Earlier they said someone else had pepper spray, now they’re pinning it on my client,” said another pointing out contradictions in the replies of the police to the bail applications.
While a counsel argued that custody wasn’t required to explore digital records, another said raising an anti-establishment slogan was not a crime.
Story continues below this ad
The police, on the other hand, argued that custody was needed as the investigation was still underway. “No permission was sought for the protest,” the counsel of the prosecution argued. Earlier, the police had claimed that the accused had supported a banned organisation on social media and they had shared articles supporting Maoist commander Hidma.
“Check Hyderabad CDR (call details records),” JMFC Cheema said after the police argued that one of the accused had met the “key conspirators” in Hyderabad.
“Is going to Hyderabad suspicious?… they’re clutching at straws. People can’t be sent to 20 days in prison for a scuffle with the police,” a defence counsel argued.
Referring to the allegation that messages were being exchanged between the accused, JMFC Cheema pulled up the police, stating: “At first you were saying something else, [regarding who had received the message].”
