Northeast Delhi riots: HC reserves order on bail plea of student activist Gulfisha Fatima

New Delhi [India], February 13 : Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its order on the bail plea of Gulfisha Fatima, an accused in Northeast Delhi violence larger conspiracy case.
Her bail plea was earlier dismissed by the trial court on March 17, 2022.
A special bench comprising justices Sidharth Mridul and Rajanish Bhatnagar reserved the order after hearing the submission of the accused and Delhi Police.
During the hearing on bail plea, Gulfisha Fatima denied the allegations and said there is no evidence which shows that she gave any speech during the protest and used chilly powder. She also contended that mere presence at a meeting is not culpable.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that there is no clear statement of any witness related to any incident. There is no recovery made from the petitioner. There was the statement of only one witness when the petitioner was arrested.
It was submitted by the counsel for the petitioner that in order to establish that Gulfisha was part of Maujpur area violence, Delhi Police recorded the statement of another witness on September 15, 2020.
Her counsel submitted that an FIR was registered in relation to what happened in Maujpur and the petitioner is not named in that FIR. The counsel added that the petitioner was part of a sit-in protest at Jafrabad metro station. Delhi Police registered two cases in this regard.
In March last year, a Delhi Court dismissed the bail plea of Gulfisha Fatima. She was booked by Delhi Police Special Cell under Sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. It is alleged she was organising a protest at Jafrabad. The court held that the allegations against the accused are prima facie true.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of Karkardooma Court had dismissed the bail plea of student activist Gulfisha Fatima.
However, she was granted bail by the Delhi High Court in another related FIR in connection with violence at Jafrabad in which a person Aman died.
It was alleged by the prosecution that three WhatsApp groups of Jamia Co-ordination Committee (JCC) were created by Gulfisha Fatima instead of Safoora and Asif was not made a part of this group. The three groups were JCC JMI Officials, JMI and JCC-JMI.
Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad vehemently argued that the Delhi riots 2020 was a large-scale and deep-rooted conspiracy hatched after the passing of the resolution by the Cabinet Committee to present CAB in both Houses of Parliament on December 4, 2019.
SPP argued that in this entire conspiracy, there were various organisations like Pinjra Tod, AAZMI, SIO, SFI, etc through which individuals participated.
There was a centrality of JCC in the ecosystem. 23 protest sites were created in Muslim-majority areas close to mosques and majar and close to main roads. The idea was to escalate the protest to chakka-jam, once critical is generated and at an appropriate time to eventually lead to violence against police and then others.
Her counsel had argued that the accused Gulfisha was only participating in the anti-CAA protest which is not a crime. In fact, such protests were happening all across India. The chargesheet is silent on the aspect of why the violence took place in Delhi.
There were also pro-CAA protests going on, which is not reflected in the contents of the chargesheet but is mentioned in several other FIR registered by Delhi Police in riots cases, the counsel argued.