Pinjra Tod activists, Jamia student get bail in northeast Delhi riots case

The Delhi High Court granted bail to Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha at a personal bond of ₹50,000 each, and a host of other conditions.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Pinjra Tod activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, as well as Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) student Asif Iqbal Tanha in connection with the main conspiracy case of last February’s riots in northeast Delhi.

53 people were killed in February 2020's riots in northeast Delhi (Biplov Bhuyan/ HT Archive)

The high court granted bail at a personal bond of ₹50,000 in each of the three cases and a surety of like amount. The two-judge bench, comprising Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Anup J Bhambhani, also put forth certain conditions which the three will have to follow. These include providing their respective mobile phone numbers and present residential addresses to the station house officer (SHO), as well as surrendering their passports. Additionally, they cannot contact any of the witnesses of this case, nor tamper with evidence or indulge in any unlawful activity.

For Tanha, the bail order will supersede the interim bail granted to him for appearing in exams.

They ( Narwal and Kalita) were booked in three cases, and have been granted bail in all three, including today.

Narwal, who was recently granted bail to attend the last rites of her father, who passed away due to Covid-19, and Kalita were arrested for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to orchestrate riots in Delhi, the Capital’s first since 1984’s anti-Sikh riots. They were specifically accused of calling people to come out and block roads against the central government’s contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

In the resulting violence, which broke out between anti and pro-CAA protesters, 53 people were killed while more than 400 were injured. On January 29, a trial court dismissed bail applications of both Narwal and Kalita.

Meanwhile, Tanha was arrested in May 2020 for allegedly being a part of a “pre-meditated” conspiracy in the riots. He challenged a trial court’s order from October that year dismissing his bail application on the ground that he allegedly played an active role in the entire conspiracy with reasonable grounds for believing the allegations to be prima facie true.