Five Years Since Delhi Riots, How Long Can A Person Be Kept In Jail? High Court To Delhi Police In Tasleem Ahmed’s Bail Hearing
The Delhi Excessive Court docket on Tuesday requested the Delhi Police as to how lengthy an accused will be saved in jail, when it has been 5 years for the reason that 2020 North-East Delhi riots?
A division bench comprising Justice Subramonium Prasad and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar posed the query to Delhi Police’s SPP, Amit Prasad, whereas listening to the bail software of Tasleem Ahmed, accused within the UAPA case alleging a bigger conspiracy in fee of the riots.
The question was put after Advocate Mehmood Pracha showing for Ahmed made arguments on the grounds of delay in trial.
Pracha submitted that he won’t make submissions on the deserves of the case however will argue parity on the bottom of delay and delay in trial per se.
He submitted that co accused Devangana Kalita, Asif Iqbal Tanha and Natasha Narwal have been granted bail on the bottom of delay in trial manner again in 2021, i.e. after one yr and two months in custody.
“They have been granted bail based mostly on the truth that trial will not be accomplished and it’ll take substantial time. 5 years have handed since then… He [Ahmed] was arrested on June 24, 2020. They [co accused on bail] have been arrested in April…. I’ve already spent 5 years [in jail],” Pracha mentioned.
He additional submitted that Ahmed has by no means delayed the trial even for a day, which makes his case totally different than different co-accused individuals.
“I’ve not taken even a single day adjournment. There has not even been a single day delay due to me in trial. I’ve additionally depleted my defence…I didn’t even press my Sec 207 CrPC software,” he mentioned.
Pracha additionally mentioned that whereas solely 5 co-accused have accomplished their arguments on cost since October final yr, Ahmed is the one accused who accomplished his arguments in a day, inside 10-Quarter-hour.
At this stage, the Bench requested SPP Prasad: “5 years have passed by. Even arguments on cost haven’t accomplished. In issues like this, 700 witnesses, how a lot time an individual will be saved inside?”
To this, Prasad argued that the prosecution can’t be blamed for delay in trial and took the Court docket by way of numerous trial court docket orders recording the adjournments taken by the accused individuals.
The Court docket then requested Pracha that whether or not delay in trial alone was a purpose cited whereas the co-accused within the case have been granted bail.
After some queries, Pracha submitted that he was dropping his argument on parity on delay and was solely confining it to delay in trial alone.
SPP Prasad submitted that Tasleem’s bail software determined by the trial court docket was not challenged and thus, had attained finality. He submitted that the particular decide had made a prima facie discovering on Tasleem’s involvement within the case.
Pracha then submitted that he was not urgent his arguments on the bottom of parity on details with different accused who have been granted bail. He mentioned that he was additionally not urgent the grounds of bail like complete variety of witnesses within the case which have been argued by different accused earlier than the coordinate bench.
Pracha mentioned that his argument is that Ahmed was arrested on June 24, 2020 and had not taken even one single adjournment earlier than the trial court docket.
He additionally mentioned that Ahmed be granted bail contemplating the truth that he has been in custody for 5 years and that he didn’t delay the method for a single day.
The matter will now be heard tomorrow at 10:30 AM.
FIR 59 of 2020 was registered by Delhi Police’s Particular Cell underneath numerous offences underneath the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act, 1967.
A coordinate bench is listening to the bail pleas filed by co accused Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Mohd. Saleem Khan, Shifa ur Rehman, Shadab Ahmed, Athar Khan, Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima.
The accused within the case are Tahir Hussain, Umar Khalid, Khalid Saifi, Isharat Jahan, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Mohd. Saleem Khan, Athar Khan, Safoora Zargar, Sharjeel Imam, Faizan Khan and Natasha Narwal.
Title: Tasleem Ahmed v. State