The Allahabad High Court on Monday cancelled the conviction of Javed Siddiqui, who is accused of arson and rioting in Dalit township of Jaunpur, under the National Security Act as illegal and directed his immediate release.
Petitioner Javed Siddiqui filed this habeas corpus writ petition against the detention order passed on July 10, 2020, under Section 3(2) of the National Security Act, and requested to issue direction for producing the corpus in the Court and also for setting aside the impugned detention order.
The facts of the case are that the petitioner, along with 56 known and 25 other unknown persons, on 09.06.2020 at about 06:00 PM, came to the slum locality of Village Bhadethi, Police Station Saraikhwaza, District Jaunpur and committed rioting, arson, used casteist words against the inhabitants of the slum locality, abused them and caused injuries by using lathi and danda due to which many of the persons sustained injuries.
Complainant Rajesh gave a written report in the police station concerned on the basis of which Crime No.154 of 2020, under Sections 147, 148, 149, 307, 452, 323, 504, 506, 436, 427, 429/34, 188, 269 I.P.C. and 7 Criminal Law Amendment Act along with Section 3(2)(5) SC/ST Act, Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, Section 3 of the Epidemic Disease Act and Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act was registered against the petitioner and others.
They are accused of setting fire to the Bhadethi slum with a crowd of 75 to 80 people, rioting, beating and spreading chaos in which many people were injured and animals were burnt to death.
The Court quashed the District Magistrate’s order of detention of the petitioner in jail on July 10, 2020 on the ground that the authorities did not present the petitioner’s report against the detention before the Advisory Council for three weeks.The Court considered it to deprive the petitioner of the right to be heard and said that doing so was against the Constitution.
This order has been given by a division bench of Justice Pritikar Diwakar and Justice PK Srivastava. Senior Advocate Daya Shankar Mishra and Chandrakesh Mishra argued on behalf of the Petitioner.
It is known that on June 9, 2020, Ravi, Pawan, Atul of the slum were feeding buffaloes and goats. The accused are said to have abused them using casteist slurs. After listening, the crowd entered the village and started rioting, 10 houses of the village were burnt. People fled to another village after saving their lives. Many were injured, many cattle were burnt to death.
A heavy police force was deployed after the incident. An FIR has been lodged at Sarai Khwaja Police Station on Rajesh’s complaint. In which petitioner is accused of rioting with the crowd.
Petitioner was granted bail by the Special Judge Court on June 20. After this, on July 10, the District Magistrate Jaunpur ordered the rectification under NSA. The Court did not consider it wrong to not allow the Advocate Council to have a party through the lawyer. On the satisfaction of passing the order of the District Magistrate, the Court said that the Court cannot examine it.