Dissent has to be encouraged; Sharjeel Imam, others roped in as scapegoats in Jamia violence case: Delhi court

A Delhi court on Saturday discharged Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha and eight others in a case related to the violence that took place at Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019..In a detailed order, Additional Sessions Arul Varma said that that dissent has to be encouraged and not stifled."However, the caveat is that dissent should be absolutely peaceful and should not degenerated into violence," the order stated..The court came down heavily on the Delhi Police for filing an "ill-conceived" chargesheet, and added that their case was "devoid of irrefragable evidence". Though the crowd created havoc and disruption on that day, the police failed to apprehend the actual perpetrators and roped in Imam, Tanha, Zargar and others as "scapegoats", the court said. "Marshalling the facts as brought forth from a perusal of the chargesheet and three supplementary chargesheets, this Court cannot but arrive at the conclusion that the police were unable to apprehend the actual perpetrators behind commission of the offence, but surely managed to rope the persons herein as scapegoats.".The present case relates to the violence that took place in and around Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019 after some students and locals announced that they would walk towards Parliament to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). However, the protests soon took a violent turn, and as the police used force to quell them, some of the protesting students allegedly entered the University..In total, Delhi Police made 12 people accused in the case. Several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including rioting and unlawful assembly were invoked against them..After considering the case, the court discharged 11 accused and framed charges against one Mohammed Ilyas. Apart from Imam, Tanha and Zargar, the others who have been discharged are Mohammed Abuzar, Umair Ahmad, Mohammed Shoaib, Mahmood Anwar, Mohammed Qasim, Mohammed Bilal Nadeem, Shahzar Raza Khan and Chanda Yadav..The court said that the police have arbitrarily chosen to make some people from crowd as accused and others as police witnesses. This “cherry-picking” was detrimental to the precept of fairness, it said."To allow the persons charge-sheeted to undergo rigmarole of long drawn trial, does not augur well for the criminal justice system of our country. Furthermore, such police action is detrimental to the liberty of citizens who choose to exercise their fundamental right to peacefully assembly and protest."Judge Verma added that dissent is an extension of the invaluable fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression, which was a right that the courts we are sworn to uphold."The desideratum is for the investigative agencies to discern the difference between dissent and insurrection. The latter has to be quelled indisputably. However, the former has to be given space, a forum, for dissent is perhaps reflective of something which pricks a citizen's conscience.".[Read Order]