No change in circumstances: Delhi court denies bail to Shahrukh Pathan in Delhi riots case

Delhi's Karkardooma court on Thursday denied bail to Shahrukh Pathan, the man who was seen pointing a gun at cops during the Delhi riots of 2020. 

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sameer Bajpai observed that there was no significant change in circumstances since his earlier bail pleas were dismissed.

The Court also noted that the Delhi High Court had previously refused relief to him twice and the trial was still at the stage of prosecution evidence.

"Accordingly, this Court is of the view that when the Hon’ble High Court has declined bail to the applicant/accused vide order dated 22.10.2024 and the circumstances have not changed, except the fact that almost one and a half years have passed, this Court should not grant bail to him even now," the Court said.

Pathan is accused of several offences including for rioting, unlawful assembly and promoting enmity between different groups.

In his fresh bail application, Pathan argued that he has been in judicial custody since March 3, 2020.

It was contended that he has been in jail for more than half the maximum sentence provided for the offence under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), which carries a maximum punishment of 10 years. 

His lawyers contended that he should be granted bail under Section 436-A of the earlier Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which allows the release of an undertrial who has served half the meaximum sentence.

However, the prosecution opposed the plea, stating that this was Pathan’s eleventh bail application and that earlier pleas had been rejected both by trial court and the Delhi High Court.

After considering the case, judge Bajpai ruled that records suggested that delays in the trial were often attributable to Pathan including unavailability of his lawyers on several occasions.

"The record shows that although initially it took a considerable time to examine the complainant and other witnesses but most of the times, the delay has been caused on the part of the accused persons only, specially the present applicant. In fact on a few occasions the Court had to note that the matter was getting delayed due to the conduct of the present applicant and specially for the reason that the counsel for the applicant was not available for a very long time," the Court said while rejecting the plea.

Advocates Abdul Gaffar, Sameer Khan, Danish Khan, Junaid Nisar and Nakul Sharma appeared for Shahrukh Pathan.

Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Anuj Handa with advocates Shubham Pandey and Ayush Vishwakarma represented the Delhi Police.

[Read Order]