The Delhi police moved the High Court on Tuesday against the trial court’s order to release 11 people in the 2019 Jamia Nagar violence case, including student activists Sharjeel Imam and Asif Iqbal Tanha.
The trial court released the 11 people on February 4, saying police had made them “scapegoats” and that dissent should be encouraged rather than stifled.
The Jamia Nagar police station had filed the charge sheet against Imam, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Safoora Zargar, Mohammad Qasim, Mahmood Anwar, Shahzar Raza Khan, Mohammad Abuzar, Mohammad Shoaib, Umair Ahmad, Bilal Nadeem, Chanda Yadav and Mohammad Ilyas.
However, the trial court ordered that charges be filed against one of the accused, Mohammad Ilyas.
According to the trial court, there were a large number of protesters at the site, and some anti-social elements among the crowd could have caused disruption and havoc.
“However, the moot question remains, whether the accused persons herein were even prima facie complicit in taking part in that mayhem? “The answer is unequivocally no,” the court concluded.
In December 2019, an FIR was registered in connection with the violence that erupted following a clash between police and people protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in the Jamia Nagar area.
By giving an inflammatory lecture at Jamia Milia University on December 13, 2019, Imam was charged with starting the disturbances. He will continue to be held in custody because he is a defendant in the more serious conspiracy case involving the riots in northeast Delhi in 2020.
