Delhi Court rejects bail plea of man accused of organising Chand Bagh protest site where first major incident of violence reported

New Delhi [India], October 6 : The Delhi Court, hearing North East Delhi riots cases, on Thursday dismissed the bail plea of a man accused of a larger conspiracy related to the Delhi riots. The allegation against the accused was that he was one of the main organisers of the Chang Bagh protest site against CAA-NRC.
Chand Bagh was the area where the violence started and the area where the Police personnel including Head Constable Ratan Lal were attacked. While Ratan died, the other police personnel, including DCP, were injured after they were attacked by the mob.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Amitabh Rawat of Karkardooma Court dismissed the bail plea of Saleem Malik alias Munna after noting the submission of Delhi Police and in view of the bar on bail in offences under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
ASJ Rawat said, "On the perusal of the charge sheet and accompanying documents, for the limited purpose of the bail, I am of the opinion that allegations against the accused Saleem Malik alias Munna are prima facie true".
Since there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against the accused is prima facie true, hence an embargo was created under Section 43 D of UAPA, which applies for a grant of bail to the accused and also, the embargo contained in Section 437 Cr. P. C.
The bail application stated that the accused was booked under UAPA by the Delhi Police for allegedly hatching a larger conspiracy of North East Delhi riots of February 2020. Initially, he was arrested on March 11, 2020, in another riots case and was under judicial custody.
He was arrested from Mandoli Jail in the present case on June 25, 2020, after delay of three months and nineteen days since the lodging of the FIR. The allegations in the present case are similar to the offence in the previous FIR registered at police station Dayal Pur, the petition stated.
Advocate Bilal Anwar Khan, the counsel for the accused, submitted that the accused is not the co-conspirator or the abettor as alleged. The allegations and material against the accused are not as serious as compared to the other accused persons. The accused is not a member of any Whatsapp group or any meetings, as detailed in the charge sheet.
The threshold of sections 13, 16, 17 and 18 is the 'terrorist act' and in the light of the role ascribed to the present accused, the said threshold is not met.
On the other hand, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad opposed the bail application submitting that the accused was part of the conspiracy of riots. He submitted that the accused participated in the meeting of 16 and 17 February 2020 which was organised for the planning of Chakka Jaa at Chand Bagh. He had links with Suleman Siddiqui, Athar, and Mohd. Saleem Khan and Shadab. There are statements of various witnesses like Pluto, Silver, Gold, Venus, Johny, HC Sunil and Constable Gyan supporting the allegations.
The video showing how the CCTV cameras installed at Chand Bagh area were systematically dislocated so that the footage of riots could not be found, the SPP argued.
In the supplementary chargesheet, the analysis of CCTV cameras in the streets on 25 Foota Road, Chand Bagh and Mustafabad area based upon the footage filed and showed mobilisation of rioters prior to the dislocation and disconnection of all the 26 functional (out of 33) CCTV cameras on February 24, 2020, SPP argued.
The SPP also argued that the said largescale mobilisation of rioters was purposely done and it was to carry out the riots in the Chand Bagh area which actually happened. Within 10 minutes of the final camera being dislocated/disconnected, one of the major casualties of the riots i.e. death of Rattan Lal and injuries to various police personnel including DCP (Shahdara) took place on the road on which the rioters descended. This was also captured in video footage.
This case pertains to the larger conspiracy of the North East Delhi riots of February 2020. In this riot, 53 people were killed and hundreds were injured. Riots were reported from many parts of North East Delhi in February 2020.