Jamia Violence: Delhi HC Allows Urgent Listing Of Police Plea Against Discharge Of Sharjeel Imam, 10 Others

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta mentioned the matter before a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, which put the hearing in the case for February 13.

The Delhi High Court Friday, allowed urgent listing of the plea moved by the city police challenging the Saket court's order dated February 4, discharging former JNU student and activist Sharjeel Imam, co-accused Asif Iqbal Tanha and nine others in the December 2019 Jamia Nagar violence case.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta mentioned the matter before a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, which put the hearing in the case for February 13, reported news agency IANS.

The Delhi Police moved the High Court on Tuesday seeking urgent hearing in the matter.

While passing the discharge orders for the 11 accused on February 4, Additional Sessions Judge of Saket Court Complex, Arul Verma pulled up the police saying that they had failed to apprehend the actual perpetrators behind the commission of the offence, but surely managed to rope in the above-mentioned accused as 'scapegoats', the news agency said in its report.

Violence had erupted in the Jamia Nagar area after a clash between the police and people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December 2019.

Judge Verma had said that the protesters were surely there in large numbers and it cannot be denied that some anti-social elements within the crowd created an environment of disruption, the IANS report stated.

"The answer is an unequivocal 'no'. 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 in the persons herein as scapegoats," the Sessions Judge had said while passing the order, reported the news agency.

"To allow the persons charge-sheeted to undergo the rigmarole of a long-drawn trial does not augur well for the criminal justice system of our country," Verma added.

A second supplementary charge sheet was filed before the court against 11 other accused persons, namely Sharjeel Imam, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Mohammad Qasim, Mahmood Anwar, Shahzar Raza Khan, Mohd Abuzar, Mohd Shoaib, Umair Ahmad, Bilal Nadeem, Chanda Yadav and Safoora Zargar, who have been discharged in the matter.