[BREAKING] Delhi Police files appeal in Supreme Court against Delhi HC order granting bail to Asif Iqbal Tanha, Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal

Delhi Police has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court order granting bail to Asif Iqbal Tanha, Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal in a Delhi Riots case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

. The special leave petition (appeal) against yesterday's judgment delivered by the Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup J Bhambhani was filed on Wednesday morning.

. In its appeal before the Supreme Court, the Delhi Police has stated that the High Court has decided the case in hand on a pre-conceived and a completely erroneous illusion , as it were a simple case of protest by students.

. It is averred that the High Court lost sight of evidence and statements produced before it "which clearly made out a sinister plot of mass-scale riots being hatched by the respondent along with other co-conspirators."

. The appeal takes exception to the observations of the Court that the arrests were part of the government's attempt to curb dissent.

"The above observation in the respectful submission of the petitioner is an insinuation, albeit unfounded and perverse, that the present case was registered by the Government to suppress dissent. A fortiori, that it was a false case. This in the respectful submission of the petitioner was beyond the preview of the bail petition."

. The High Court's verdict is criticised for being based more on the social media narrative than the evidence gathered and elaborated in the chargesheet.

. Another issue raised in the appeal is that in its bail order, the High Court read down provisions of UAPA, specially Section 15 of the Act, which defines terrorism. This, the Delhi Police states, will have "far-reaching consequences" for other cases being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

"Thus the Hon'ble High Court has held that provisions of UAPA can only be applied to deal with matters of profound impact on the ‘Defence of India’, nothing more and nothing less. This in the respectful submission of the petitioner was firstly, an irrelevant consideration to grant bail to the respondent, and secondly, will have far reaching consequences for cases investigated by NIA and other investigating agencies. The impugned order is thus unsustainable in law and deserves to be stayed."

. The High Court had held that prima facie , no offence under Sections 15, 17 or 18 of the UAPA was made out on the basis of the material on record in the present case against the three.

. It further observed that the State, in its anxiety to suppress dissent, blurred the line between the constitutionally guaranteed right to protest and terrorist activity.

"We are constrained to say, that it appears, that in its anxiety to suppress dissent and in the morbid fear that matters may get out of hand, the State has blurred the line between the constitutionally guaranteed ‘right to protest’ and ‘terrorist activity’. If such blurring gains traction, democracy would be in peril," the order said.

. The Court also underscored that the right to protest peacefully without arms is a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(b) of the Constitution and has not been outlawed yet.

It further held that even if activities cross the permissible line of peaceful protests, it would still not amount to commission of a ‘terrorist act’ or a ‘conspiracy’ or an ‘act preparatory’ to the commission of a terrorist act as understood under the UAPA.

. The case pertains to Delhi police probe into the "larger conspiracy" that led to the riots in the capital’s North-East area in February 2020.

Asif Iqbal Tanha is a student pursuing his final year of B.A. (Hons.) (Persian) Programme at Jamia Millia Islamia. He was arrested in the Delhi riots case under UAPA in May 2020 and has been in continuous custody since then.

Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita are scholars at Jawaharlal Nehru University, who are associated with the Pinjra Tod Collective. They have also been in custody since May 2020.

. As per Delhi Police, the trio and other accused persons conspired to cause disruption of such an extent and such a magnitude at the national capital that would lead to disorderliness and disturbance of law and order at an unprecedented scale.

[BREAKING] Delhi Police files appeal in Supreme Court against Delhi HC order granting bail to Asif Iqbal Tanha, Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal

Debayan Roy

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