Deep Sidhu granted bail in Red Fort violence case
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday granted bail to Punjabi actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu in connection to an FIR lodged against him by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for allegedly damaging the Red Fort during the violence in a tractor rally on Republic Day, saying that the “need and timing of the arrest is highly questionable” and a “grave affront to his personal liberty”.
Sidhu was arrested by Delhi police on April 17, in a case filed by ASI, moments after he was granted bail on April 16 in another case related to the same incident.
A tractor rally taken out by farmers protesting against the three contentious farm laws on Delhi’s borders descended into chaos after they broke the police barricades, clashed with the cops and damaged public property at several locations in the Capital, including the Red Fort.
Metropolitan magistrate Sahil Gupta said that Sidhu’s arrest on April 17 suggests that it was an attempt to defeat the bail order of April 16 and runs foul to his
fundamental rights. It said that such “vicious and sinister action of investigative agency amounts to “fraud” while showing “scant regard to the constitutional protections”.
The court granted bail to Sidhu, who was represented by advocates Abhishek Gupta and Jasdeep Dhillon, stating that the accused has already been interrogated in police custody for 14 days in the earlier case, and was in custody for about 70 days when he was granted regular bail on April 16.
It said that “any further restraint upon his liberty would be neither logical nor legal”.
The court also agreed to the
submissions by Sidhu’s counsel who pointed out differences in both the FIRS, and granted a bail on a bond of Rs 25,000, and said that further incarceration in the present case would bear no fruit and therefore would be unjustified.
“The prosecution seeks to make an example out of the case of the accused, he being a popular public figure, such an endeavour however hazards a failure of justice as a result of compromised objectivity.
“The sweeping power of investigation does not warrant subjecting a citizen to fresh probe in respect of the same incident,” the magistrate said.