New Delhi: A Delhi court Wednesday granted bail to Bhim Army chief Chandrasekhar Azad, asking him to stay in his permanent residence in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh’ for the next one month.
The matter was heard by Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau, who granted Azad bail on a bond of Rs 25,000 under the condition that he stay away from Delhi for the next four weeks and mark his attendance with the Saharanpur SHO every Saturday.
“If he is coming to Delhi for treatment, will inform SHO and the DCP will escort him and provide transport to AIIMS,” she said.
“Delhi is under elections and I don’t wish for there to be any violence or interference with the elections. Azad will not not hold any dharna or procession in Delhi till elections are over,” she added.
Azad’s counsel, led by advocate Mehmood Pracha, pleaded with the judge to allow Azad to stay in Delhi, saying his life is “not so safe in UP”.
“These false allegations of violence should not influence the court’s mind. It’s unfair to place restrictions on him. He would like to pay obeisance at Jama Masjid,” said Pracha.
The judge responded by saying she was not restricting his movements, and that Azad was free to pay obeisance wherever he liked within 24 hours of being released from Tihar jail, where he is currently lodged.
“If we wants to go somewhere after he is released, let him go, as long as it is within 24 hours. The police cannot stop him,” said the judge.
Azad has been in judicial custody since 21 December 2019, when he was arrested from Jama Masjid during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
A case was registered against him under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public), and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Last week, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arul Verma had allowed Azad’s application to receive treatment for polycythemia at AIIMS.
Directing the jail authorities to provide proper treatment to him, the judge had expressed displeasure that “despite being aware of the fact that the accused had expressed to the jail authorities… that he was a patient of polycythemia, no action was taken by the jail authorities”.
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‘Have you read the Constitution?’
Hearing Azad’s bail application Tuesday, judge Lau came down heavily on the public prosecutor, who had opposed the hearing submitting that Azad incited violence through his social media posts.
After some reluctance to share the posts with Azad’s lawyer Mehmood Pracha, the public prosecutor read out some of them. The court, however, noted that these posts merely called for protests and dharna against the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) near Jama Masjid, and that there was nothing violent about them.
“Where is the violence? What is wrong with any of these posts? Who says you cannot protest? Have you read the constitution?” Lau asked the lawyer.
“You are behaving as if Jama Masjid is Pakistan. Even if it was Pakistan, you can go there and protest. Pakistan was a part of undivided India,” she added.
When asked about evidence of violence by Azad, the public prosecutor claimed that there was drone footage of Azad giving inflammatory speeches. This was rebutted by Pracha, who told the court that Azad merely read the Constitution and spoke against the CAA and the NRC.
The court then adjourned the hearing for Wednesday, giving time to the public prosecutor to submit the FIRs previously registered against Azad by the UP Police.
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One sees a marked difference between day1 and day2 of the hearing. Things seemed to have returned to the current normal for the legal system on day2, with interesting rulings like not allowed in Delhi for 4 weeks etc. So no protests.