A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to six accused in the India Gate air pollution protest case where “slogans in favor of Naxalites” were allegedly raised and police personnel had been “injured”. At the same time, the bail pleas of four protesters were rejected.
“… the CCTV footage and video clips of the incident/protest are already available to the investigating agency. The mobile phones of the accused have been seized by the police… nothing has been discovered against the accused qua the membership of Radical organizations related to naxalites,” said Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Aridaman Singh Cheema of Patiala House Court in his order on Friday.
While rejecting the bail plea, JMFC Cheema reasoned, “In view of the involvement of accused with Radical Student Union which is a banned organization as a frontal organisation of Naxals, I am of the view that accused should not be released on bail at this stage as the accused is likely to commit offences of similar nature, may try to inform other members of Radical Student Union.”
Two FIRs were initially 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 are on bail.
The second FIR was related to alleged recovery of pepper sprays, and “Naxal links” of protesters. In this case, 16 of 23 have been granted bail. The bails of five others have been rejected and two are yet to be decided.
The protesters were mostly Delhi University students reportedly associated with the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch (BSCEM) and Himkhand, an environmental research and action collective.
