The Delhi Police on Tuesday challenged a trial court’s order which discharged student activists Sharjeel Imam and Asif Iqbal Tanha, among 11 people named by the police in the chargesheet of the 2019 Jamia Nagar violence case.
According to reports, the police has filed a plea in the Delhi High Court challenging the order. However, the petition is yet to be cleared for listing by the Delhi HC, reports quoting sources said.
A trial court discharged 11 accused in the Jamia Nagar violence case. The court ruled that they were made scapegoats by the police while observing that dissent must not be stifled but encouraged.
However, it ordered that charges be framed against one of the accused Mohammad Ilyas.
Violent protests erupted as locals clashed with the police during the demonstrations against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area in December 2019.
The police registered a case and lodged an FIR in which Sharjeel Imam was accused of instigating the riots by delivering a provocative speech at the Jamia Milia University on December 13, 2019.
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Imam, who is also an accused in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, will continue to stay behind bars.
The trial court, while delivering its judgement, while admitting that there may have been some anti-social elements within the mass of people who staged protests against the CAA, however, it observed that the question is whether the accused persons were even prima facie complicit in taking part in that mayhem?”, adding that the answer is an “unequivocal no.”
The Jamia Nagar police station had filed a charge sheet against Imam, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Safoora Zargar, Mohammad Qasim, Mahmood Anwar, Shahzar Raza Khan, Mohammad Abuzar, Mohammad Shoaib, Umair Ahmad, Bilal Nadeem, Chanda Yadav and Mohammad Ilyas.
Following sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) were invoked against the accused in the chargesheet, section 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
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