A court in Delhi has recently granted bail to the former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain in the North-East Delhi riots of 2020 case.
The Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastya Pramachala while granting bail said that the incident in the first information report (FIR) corresponds with two other incidents in which Hussain had bail was already been granted by the Delhi High Court.
The Court said in its 2nd September order that even though a bail order may not be a precedent for other case, in the aforesaid peculiar situation, bail granted to the applicant by a court higher in hierarchy to this court, does create a material change in the circumstances in favour of the applicant.
The Court added that the many of the witnesses were common in all the FIRs and the High Court had considered all the merits before granting bail to Hussain in the cases earlier.
The Court added that it has no reason to take a different view. This material change in the circumstance in itself becomes a ground to grant bail to the accused/applicant in this case as well. Hence, application is allowed.
On July 12, 2023, the High Court had granted bail to Hussain in five cases related to Delhi riots who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the riots that took place in North-East Delhi in February 2020.
However, the former Councillor would not be able to come out of jail since he has been remanded to judicial custody in other cases related to the Delhi riots.
However, Hussain will still remain in judicial custody in other FIRs registered against him, including the UAPA case alleging a larger conspiracy to commit the riots.
The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Anish Dayal granted bail to Hussain in five different cases registered against him.
A total of 11 FIRs were registered against Tahir Hussain in connection with the 2020 riots, including a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, accusing him and others of being behind a “larger conspiracy” to commit the riots.
An ECIR was also registered by the Enforcement Directorate against Hussain. Charges were further framed against the former Councillor in a money laundering case by the trial court in November last year.
Hussain’s challenge to the order framing charges was dismissed by the High Court and Supreme Court.
Last month, Hussain moved the trial court seeking regular bail in the UAPA case.
Hussain was represented by Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid, along with Advocates Rizwan, Sachi Chopra, Aadil Singh Bopara, Shama Usmani, Aman Khullak, Mariya Mansuri, Anshu Kapoor and Nistha Sinha.
ASG SV Raju and SPP Madhukar Pandey appeared for Delhi Police.
Earlier in November last year, the High Court of Delhi had refused to quash a trial court order against Hussain in a money laundering case related to the North-east Delhi Riots of 2020.
The order was pronounced by the Single-Judge Bench of Justice Anu Malhotra.
The Enforcement Directorate had said that Tahir Hussain had hatched a conspiracy along with his associates for withdrawing money by fraudulent means. The agency further accused him of withdrawing money from the accounts of companies owned and controlled by him through bogus transactions, for use during the riots.