On Monday, the Supreme Court of India recommended that the Delhi Police should think about granting bail to the accused in the 2020 Delhi riots larger conspiracy case as some of them had already already spent close to five years in custody but the case had not yet ended.
The observation was done by a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria as they heard petitions of bails filed by the student activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima, and Shifa-ur-Rehman. The court instructed the Delhi Police to get their response in before the end of this week and the case will be next heard on Friday, October 31.
It is just a case of bail consideration. See, five years have already elapsed, Justice Kumar said to Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S.V. Raju who was present on behalf of the Delhi Police. The court denied Raju two weeks to submit a counter-affidavit, note that this was already provided enough time. What is the query of a counter-affidavit in a bail case? posed the bench, and it could not be treated any further.
In a notable comment, the bench also indicated that the police might look into the possibility of you coming out with something when your bail might be considered on humanitarian grounds because of the long time spent in custody and slow pacing of the trial case.
The accused attorneys, who argued on behalf of the accused, Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Siddharth Dave, and Siddharth Agarwal, pointed out that their clients served a period of more than four to five years in prison with the case being tried at a glacial speed. They encouraged the court to allow no further delay of justice.
On September 2, the Delhi High Court had refused to grant bail to the accused citing their alleged roles in the conspiracy as being prima facie grave and that evidence showed a well-planned conspiracy behind the riots that left 53 dead.
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