Delhi riots | HC to hear appeal by police against bail to Ishrat Jahan on July 27

Delhi High Court will hear Delhi Police's plea challenging the bail granted to Ishrat Jahan in a case concerning a larger conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots in the city on July 27

The Delhi High Court on July 11 said it will hear the Delhi Police's plea challenging the bail granted to former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan in a case concerning a larger conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots in the city on July 27.

A bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar said the appeal of the investigating agency, which assails the trial court order of March 14, be listed on July 27 along with the bail plea of co-accused Umar Khalid.

"List along with... on the same day, that is, July 27," the bench said.

Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad had earlier told a single-judge bench, before which the appeal was initially listed, that since the plea concerns offences under the UAPA, it should be heard by a division bench in accordance with the law.

He had further informed the court that the bench headed by Justice Mridul was already hearing Khalid's bail plea, after which the judge had said, "Subject to orders of the chief justice, proceedings of the present criminal appeal with all its applications be listed for hearing before the division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar on July 11." Jahan, along with several others, has been booked under the anti-terror law -- Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) - for being one of the "masterminds" of the February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi that had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

The violence erupted during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

In the appeal, police said the trial court order granting bail to Jahan was perverse, against the law and failed to take into account the gravity of the offence and the evidence which suggested that the violence in northeast Delhi erupted pursuant to a conspiracy hatched by her and the other co-accused.