Sharjeel Imam violated bail conditions by meeting media: Delhi court

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday held that student activist Sharjeel Imam violated the conditions of his interim bail by coming in contact with the media, rejecting his defence that he neither interacted with journalists nor gave any interview during his seven-day release

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday held that student activist Sharjeel Imam violated the conditions of his interim bail by coming in contact with the media, rejecting his defence that he neither interacted with journalists nor gave any interview during his seven-day release.

Sharjeel Imam (HT Archive)

Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma courts, while hearing a Delhi Police plea seeking cancellation of Imam’s interim bail, said the video evidence showed that a journalist was present in the same room as the activist while his brother was being interviewed.

“Thus, apparently the accused has flouted the term ii of the bail order dated September 22, whereby he was granted interim bail,” the court held.

The court, however, stopped short of cancelling Imam’s bail, noting that his interim bail duration was due to end on Saturday itself.

The defence, through advocate Talib Mustafa, however, argued that Imam had neither used social media nor given an interview or statement to any journalist.

The counsel contended that the news video was a compilation of clips from three unrelated sources and that Imam was merely seen with family members, relatives and friends in a private video. Imam also argued that there was no restriction on his brother speaking to the media.

The prosecution, through Special Public Prosecutor Madhukar Pandey, alleged that Imam breached these conditions by being present when his brother was interviewed by a news agency.

The defence also relied on Supreme Court judgments to argue that bail cancellation powers must be exercised with caution and only in compelling circumstances.

After hearing both sides and examining the videos, the court rejected the defence’s contention that Imam was not present when the interview was recorded.

The judge noted that the video contained different views of the same room, with Imam and several other people seated there. The court also found that the relevant portions carried the news agency’s identification mark, indicating that they had been recorded by the same media organisation.

“Apparently these facts and circumstances show that the media person was there in the same room where the accused was also sitting,” the court stated.

The court, however, stopped short of cancelling the bail after noting that Imam was required to surrender in jail by Saturday evening, the scheduled end of his interim bail. His counsel informed the court that Imam had already boarded a flight and would reach Delhi in the evening to surrender.

In view of these circumstances, the order recorded the surrender arrangement while holding that Imam had violated the bail condition.

Imam was arrested on January 28, 2020, and booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The police have alleged that he was a key intellectual architect of the conspiracy behind the February 2020 communal riots in northeast Delhi, which left 53 people dead and hundreds injured.

ASJ Bajpai on July 5 rejected fresh bail pleas filed by Imam and co-accused Umar Khalid, citing a January 5 Supreme Court order denying them bail and laying down conditions for reviving their applications.

The two relied on a May 18 Supreme Court judgment granting bail to Syed Iftikhar Andrabi in a narco-terror case investigated by the National Investigation Agency. In that ruling, a bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan expressed “serious reservations” about the reasoning adopted in the January 5 order.

However, the trial court noted that the apparent divergence between the two Supreme Court rulings had been referred to a larger bench. It said the fresh bail pleas could not be considered until the issue was resolved.