Friday, March 29, 2024

Jahangirpuri: HC grants bail to Muslim man, says he was not seen instigating the crowd

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to a Muslim man accused in a case related to the violence that broke out in April in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri.

On Tuesday, Justice Yogesh Khanna said in his order that a CCTV footage showed that the accused man, Babuddin, was just standing and not instigating the crowd when the violence occurred. The prosecution had said the 43-year-old was the leader of the violent mob.

On April 16, three processions were organised by the Hindutva militant group Bajrang Dal to commemorate Hanuman Jayanti in Jahangirpuri. Muslims said that participants in the processions were armed with swords and tridents, while videos also showed some of them wielding guns and shouting “Jai Shri Ram” and genocidal slogans against Muslims. Violence broke out as the third procession passed a mosque and participants attacked the mosque.

However, arbitrarily, the city police accused Muslims of spreading violence and arrested dozens of Muslims.

The chargesheet claimed that the violence was a continuation of the protests in Shaheen Bagh in 2019 and 2020 against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens along with the anti-Muslim pogrom of February 2020.

In his bail plea, Babuddin alleged that the prosecution had made a blatant, false and fabricated story to implicate him.

“Though the state has taken various dates to bring on record various other CCTV footages to show this fact but they have not placed the same on record as yet,” the judge said. “Nevertheless looking at his period of custody, being since April 27, 2022, he is no more required for further investigation.”

The High Court also noted that a chargesheet has been filed against him and one of the co-accused in the case is also out on bail.

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