Delhi court pulls up police for mistaken arrest in Uttam Nagar case, orders release

A Delhi court released Imran, wrongly arrested in the Uttam Nagar violence case, citing lack of evidence and illegal custody since March 8.

NEW DELHI

Additional sessions judge Shivani Bansal of Dwarka courts passed the order immediately releasing the accused, Imran alias Bunty, from jail after observing that he was not involved in the offence. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A city court on Friday pulled up the Delhi Police for “mistakenly arresting” a person in the Uttam Nagar violence case and holding him in illegal custody without evidence showing his involvement.

Additional sessions judge Shivani Bansal of Dwarka courts passed the order immediately releasing the accused, Imran alias Bunty, from jail after observing that he was not involved in the offence.

On March 4, a minor girl from victim Tarun Kumar’s family was playing Holi at her house in Uttam Nagar, when a coloured water balloon fell on a woman from a different community. A dispute started when the water splashed on the woman’s clothes and several members of her family gathered and allegedly assaulted Tarun and his family. Tarun sustained grievous injuries from the assault and succumbed to his injuries a day later at a hospital. A total of 18 persons were arrested and two juveniles were booked and apprehended.

During the proceedings, the investigating officer of the case told the court that nothing incriminating had emerged from the CCTV footage against the accused Imran and he was mistakenly arrested.

The court noted that the accused had been incarcerated in illegal custody since March 8, when he was arrested in the case, and the investigating officer only got to know about his wrongful implication on May 3.

Declining to take cognisance of the offences against him, the court stated, “To the utter dismay of this court, the IO had not taken steps for release of accused Imran alias Bunty until filing of the charge sheet despite knowing about the illegal custody of accused”.

Advocate Abdul Gaffar represented Imran.

The court went on to take cognisance of the charge sheet against 17 other persons, under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to murder, mob lynching, voluntarily causing hurt, attempted murder, unlawful assembly and house trespass and under the SC/ST Act.