Man who breached Delhi Assembly gets bail after 7 months in jail

The court noted that the accused had spent nearly seven months in judicial custody and that continued detention would infringe on his personal liberty.

A Delhi court has granted bail to Sarabjeet Singh, accused of driving his car through a gate of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha and entering its premises in April, observing that while his actions had thrown the security apparatus into a tizzy, keeping him in jail any longer would violate his personal liberty.

The security breach took place at Gate No. 2 of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha on April 6, when Sarabjeet Singh allegedly drove his car into the premises. (HT)

Additional sessions judge Ankur Jain of Tis Hazari Courts, in an order on November 2, noted that Singh had been in judicial custody since April 6 and was suffering from bipolar affective disorder.

The court stressed that bail proceedings should not become a means of punishing an accused before conviction. It referred to several Supreme Court judgments, reiterating that the presumption of innocence favoured the accused and that bail, rather than jail, should be the rule.

“The object of bail is not to inflict punishment by way of pre-trial detention,” the court observed, adding that the seriousness of the offence, by itself, was not sufficient to deny bail.

On April 6, Singh drove a white Tata Sierra through Gate No. 2 of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha despite being signalled by Delhi Police head constable Jai Prakash Narayan to stop.

The prosecution, through additional public prosecutor Atul Tripathi, alleged that the car was driven towards the police personnel in a manner intended to cause death. Singh then allegedly drove towards the main porch, threatened police officers and left the premises.

A first information report (FIR) was registered under sections 221 (voluntarily obstructing a public servant), 132 (assaulting or using criminal force against a public servant), 333 (house-trespass) and 109(1) (attempt to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), besides Section 3 (mischief causing damage to public property) of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.