HC vacates stay on school owner’s bail

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday vacated the interim stay on bail granted to Rajdhani School owner Faisal Farooq by a trial court after it held that the controversy over who would represent the Delhi Police in the riots matter, which had now become a feature of every hearing, if continued, would prejudice the accused. Farooq was granted bail by a Delhi court after it had held that there was no direct evidence presented by the Delhi Police showing his involvement with groups like Pinjra Tod or Popular Front of India. The Delhi Police had arrested him in a north-east Delhi riots related case pertaining to the burning of a school in the area. However, the day after Farooq was granted bail, the Delhi Police had approached Delhi High Court with a plea to cancel it and had, in the meantime, also arrested him from jail in a separate riotsrelated case. While the trial court refused to grant police custody in the second case, the high court had stayed Farooq’s bail on Delhi Police’s plea. Significantly, Additional Solicitor-general Aman Lekhi and Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra have been engaging in arguments over who should represent the police in the case ever since.

Observing that such a continued disagreement would prejudice Farooq, Justice Suresh Kumar Kait vacated the stay order on his bail and directed all the counsels to submit written arguments over the matter with regards to who should represent the police. The case has now been listed for July 22.

However, Farooq will remain in judicial custody until he is granted bail in the second case in which police arrested him after he was granted bail.