SC Eases Reporting Condition for Riots Accused Haider

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday relaxed the reporting condition for 2020 Delhi riots accused Meeran Haider, allowing him to report to the Crime Branch police station once a week instead of twice.

A two-judge bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi said that as Haider is scheduled to get married on October 17, he is exempted from marking his attendance on October 17 and 24.

It said that the rest of the bail conditions, including not posting anything on social media and not participating in any programme or addressing or attending any gathering, rally or meeting, whether physically or virtually till conclusion of the trial, will remain unchanged.

The top court said that Haider will mark his attendance on every Saturday between 10am and 12pm at the Crime Branch police station.

Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appearing for Delhi Police did not oppose the relaxation of bail conditions for Haider.

Senior advocate Siddharth Agarwal, appearing for Haider, sought relaxation of bail conditions on account of his marriage and said the trial court will not grant them relief in the matter.

Earlier, the top court had said that Haider would mark his attendance twice every week -- on Monday and Thursday between 10 am and 12 noon -- before the station house officer (SHO), police station crime branch of Delhi Police.

On January 5, the top court had granted bail to Haider, along with activists Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad in the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case and imposed 11 conditions while emphasising that any misuse of liberty would attract cancellation of bail.

All the accused were booked under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the "masterminds" of the riots.