They Were Made 'Scapegoats': Delhi Court Discharges Sharjeel Imam, 10 Others In 2019 Jamia Violence Case
Delhi's Saket court on Saturday discharged student activist Sharjeel Imam and ten others in the 2019 Jamia violence case.
New Delhi: A court here on Saturday discharged student activist Sharjeel Imam and ten others in the 2019 Jamia violence case, reported PTI. Sharjeel was earlier granted bail in the case in 2021. Apart from Sharjeel, the court also discharged Asif Iqbal Tanha saying that they were made ‘scapegoats’ by the police.
Additional Sessions Judge Arul Verma discharged them in a case registered at the Jamia Nagar police station in 2019
Violence had erupted on the Jamia Milia University campus in December 2019 after a clash broke out between people protesting against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the police. Police had registered an FIR under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including rioting in connection with the violence case.
Sharjeel Imam was accused of instigating the riots by delivering a provocative speech at the Jamia Milia University on December 13, 2019. According to PTI, Imam will continue to remain in custody in other FIRs registered against him in connection with the 2020 North-East Delhi riots. Notably, both Imam and Tanha are accused in the Special Cell's case alleging that there was a larger conspiracy behind the Northeast Delhi riots, it added.
The court observed that the accused were merely present at the protest site and there was no incriminating evidence against them, reported PTI. The court said that dissent is an extension of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression, and has to be encouraged.
Delhi’s Saket court said that investigative agencies need to distinguish the difference between dissent, which has to be given space, and insurrection which should be quelled.
“Marshalling the facts as brought forth from a perusal of the charge sheet and three supplementary charge sheets, this court cannot but arrive at the conclusion that the police were unable to apprehend the actual perpetrators behind the commission of the offence, but surely managed to rope the persons herein as scapegoats,” Additional Sessions Judge Arul Varma said, as quoted by PTI.
The court further criticised the police for failing to produce any WhatsApp chats, SMS or other proof of the accused interacting with each other and “arbitrarily” choosing to array some people from the crowd as accused and police witnesses. The court added that this “cherry-picking” by the police is detrimental to the precept of fairness.
According to PTI, the court said the legal proceedings against the 11 accused were initiated in a “perfunctory and cavalier fashion” and “allowing them to undergo the rigmarole of a long-drawn trial does not augur well for the criminal justice system of the country”.
“Furthermore, such police action is detrimental to the liberty of citizens who choose to exercise their fundamental right to peacefully assemble and protest. The liberty of the protesting citizens should not have been lightly interfered with,” it said.
The court said dissent is an extension of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression, subject to reasonable restrictions adding that the investigative agencies needed to discern the difference between dissent and insurrection, the PTI report mentioned.
“The latter (insurrection) has to be quelled indisputably. However, the former (dissent) has to be given space, a forum, for dissent is perhaps reflective of something which pricks a citizen’s conscience,” it said.
The court, however, ordered the framing of charges against one of the accused, Mohammad Ilyas.
“Considering the fact that the case of the state is devoid of irrefragable evidence, all the persons charge-sheeted, barring Mohammad Ilyas, are hereby discharged for all the offences for which they were arraigned. They be set at liberty, if not wanted in any other case,” the court said in its order.
The court noted that photographs of Ilyas showed him hurling a burning tyre and that he was duly identified by police witnesses.
“Therefore, charges levelled in the charge sheet be framed…(against) accused Mohammad Ilyas,” judge Arul Verma said.
“Needless to say, the investigative agency is not precluded from conducting further investigation in a fair manner…in order to bring to book the actual perpetrators, with the adjuration not to blur lines between dissenters and rioters, and to desist from henceforth arraigning innocent protesters,” he added.
The court posted the matter to April 10 for the framing of charges against Ilyas.
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