New Delhi: Fourteen Aam Aadmi Party workers who were arrested in connection with clashes with BJP supporters at the latter's national headquarters here were on Thursday granted bail by a Delhi court. Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain granted relief to the AAP workers after they were produced before him by Delhi Police, who could not answer in the affirmative about any pendency of criminal cases against them.
The magistrate observed that the investigating officer (IO) had only sought to send the accused to judicial custody and did not seek their custodial interrogation. "In the course of arguments on the bail applications, IO has failed to disclose pendency of any other criminal cases against the accused persons.
Moreover, no custodial interrogation was sought... and the only prayer was for keeping the accused persons in judicial custody. "Keeping in view the facts of the case, nature of offences and undertaking given on behalf of accused persons, the application for bail is allowed," the court said. The 14 AAP workers were given bail against a personal bond of Rs 15,000 "with one surety of like amount each with directions that (they) shall join the investigation and not try to tamper with the evidence".
The AAP workers were booked for offences like rioting, assaulting or obstructing public servants when suppressing riots and deterring them from discharging their duties, causing them hurt (under the IPC), and mischief causing damage to public property under the Prevention of Destruction of Public Property Act. Police have named AAP leaders Ashutosh and Shazia Ilmi in their FIR, but the duo were not arrested.
Police said that apart from Ashutosh and Ilmi, AAP leaders like Akhilesh Tripathi, Jarnail Singh, Jagdish Singh, Surender Singh (all MLAs) and Professor Anand Kumar gave inflammatory statements to instigate people to vandalise the BJP office.
AAP workers had on Wednesday staged a demonstration outside the BJP headquarters and allegedly attacked the office with bricks, hours after their party leader Arvind Kejriwal was detained briefly in Gujarat. Seeking bail for AAP workers, advocate Prashant Bhushan argued before court that 33 persons were detained last night of which 18 were named in the FIR. Out of these latter, 14 were arrested while the rest were allowed to go. He argued that police had not arrested any BJP supporters nor named them as accused. He said that 28 people, including 13 AAP activists and 10 BJP supporters, were injured in the clashes.
AAP supporters have accused Delhi Police of being biased against them. The court granted bail to Pawan Kumar Pandey, Akbar, Vijender Singh, Aditya Rai, Abhinav Rai, Bandeep Dutta, Santosh Kumar, Sant Prakash, advocate Manoj Dhirian, Paramjeet Singh, Suresh Chandra, Satbir Singh, Sudhit Dixit and Parath Mandal.
Bhushan further alleged in court that AAP workers were beaten up by BJP supporters, but none of them were booked for the offence. Stating before the judge that bail was the rule, advocate Somnath Bharti, who was also representing some of the accused, said AAP members should be released as they have been implicated falsely in the case. The accused persons were peacefully protesting near the BJP office along with other AAP volunteers, he contended. "The protest was peaceful until some BJP workers started throwing stones and chairs at AAP workers," Bharti argued. The court then asked him the reason behind AAP workers going to the BJP office and said, "There is a specific place for demonstrations, so they should not have gone there." Police maintained that the AAP workers had resorted to a violent protest in front of the BJP office. "Despite a place having been earmarked for protests and peaceful demonstrations, the accused persons along with other party members marched to the BJP office and indulged in violation of prohibitory orders," police said.
