Safoora Zargar gets bail; HC says order cannot be cited as precedent
Pregnant Jamia Coordination Committee member was arrested on April 10
NEW DELHI: Twentyseven-year-old Jamia Millia University student and anti-caa activist Safoora Zargar was on Tuesday granted bail by the Delhi High Court on humanitarian grounds after more than 75 days of custody in a case related to the alleged conspiracy behind the North-east Delhi riots. The pregnant Jamia Coordination Committee member was arrested by the Delhi Police on April 10, after it alleged that she had allegedly “conspired” to incite riots and violence in the Capital in February this year. After opposing Zargar’s bail plea more than three times, with as recent being as on Monday when the Delhi Police claimed that she had organised anti-caa protests to “deliberately destabilise the government”, the police here on Tuesday made a U-turn and agreed for grant of bail to the student activist, bringing on record that it was doing so “purely on humanitarian grounds”. The court granted the Jamia student bail on a personal bond of Rs 10,000 and on the conditions that she should refrain from hampering the probe, she should call the investigating officer once every 15 days, she should seek permission from the court before leaving Delhi and that she should not indulge in activities that she is being investigated for. Significantly, the court said this bail order “shall not be cited as a precedent either in this case or in any other case”. Moreover, the court also noted that it had received some documents from the state in a sealed cover and that it had not opened or perused through the contents of these documents.
After confusion during the hearing about who was to represent the Delhi Police in the case, Solicitorgeneral Tushar Mehta told Justice Rajiv Shakdher that the state would not oppose bail to Zargar provided certain conditions are imposed. For instance, SG Mehta said she must not indulge in activities that she is being investigated for and that she should not leave Delhi.
However, Zargar’s counsel Nitya Ramakrishnan said that Zargar, who is in a fairly advanced stage of her pregnancy would need to go to Faridabad as her doctor was there.