The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its order on the petition filed by Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, an accused in the Delhi Riots case, challenging a trial court order rejecting the regular bail application filed by him.
A division bench of the High Court presided over by Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambani reserved its order on the application filed by Tanha through Advocates Siddharth Aggarwal and Sowjanya Shankar.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aman Lekhi, along with Central government standing counsel Amit Mahajan, appeared for the Delhi Police while Aggarwal and Shankar represented the petitioner.
The plea filed by Tanha challenged a trial court order dated October 26 by which Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat had dismissed Tanha’s bail application stating that the case against Tanha was prima facie true.
“…since there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against the accused Asif Iqbal Tanha are prima facie true, hence, embargo created by Section 43D of UAPA applies for grant of bail to the accused. Hence, the present application for bail of accused Asif Iqbal Tanha is dismissed,” the trial court had said.
Tanha is facing criminal proceedings under the UAPA for his alleged involvement in the northeast Delhi violence, which took place in February 2020 leading to the death of at least 53 people. According to the prosecution, Tanha purchased a SIM card in December 2019 on forged and fabricated documents and that the same was to be used for the riots.
The prosecution’s case further states that the said SIM card was subsequently provided to co accused Safoora Zargar in mid¬January 2020, and the said SIM Card was used by her for organizing protests and was part of all four WhatsApp groups created by the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC).
Last year, the Delhi Police filed a charge sheet against Tanha and 14 others alleging that the Delhi riots that took place in February were the result of a pre-planned conspiracy.
The 15 accused persons are Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Ishrat Jahan, Miran Haider, Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Tahir Hussain, Mohd Parvez Ahmed, Mohd Illyas, Saifi Khalid, Shahdab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Mohd Saleem Khan and Athar Khan.
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