Supreme Court Seeks Delhi Police Response on Bail Plea of Delhi Riots Accused Athar Khan
He has sought bail on grounds of parity with co-accused Shadab Ahmad, prolonged incarceration and delay in the trial.
The Supreme Court today issued a notice to Delhi police on the bail plea filed by Athar Khan, an accused in the 20 conspiracy case pertaining to Delhi Riots in 20.
Issuing notice to the police on August 19, a bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Vipul M Pancholi also asked them to file their reply on Khan’s plea against the Delhi High Court’s July 7 judgment which had rejected his bail plea.
Khan has been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Indian Penal Code (IPC), Arms Act and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act in connection with the alleged larger conspiracy behind Delhi riots that had broken out in North-East Delhi during February-March 20.
The prosecution has alleged that Khan was involved with the management of Chand Bagh protest site and was part of the alleged conspiracy.
He had approached the High Court after the trial court on January 29 rejected his bail plea.
While hearing Khan’s bail plea, the High Court said that the material against him including chats recovered from co-accused Ovais Sultan Khan and statement of protected witness “Pluto” prima facie showed that he was part of the larger conspiracy as “a core conspirator who incited people to violence”.
The High Court further said Khan had also failed to discharge the higher threshold requirement for bail under Section 43D(5) of the UAPA as well as the normal principles on grant of bail.
Khan has challenged the High Court’s ruling in the apex court.
Khan, who has been in custody since July 20,20, has claimed that he has been denied bail only on account of a “delay in trial”.
Asserting that substantial time had already passed since he was arrested, Khan’s plea said that he has been denied bail on grounds of parity with co-accused Shadab Ahmad.
In his plea, Khan has also contested the evidence relied upon by the prosecution against him. Khan said that “no weapon whatsoever was recovered from him and there was no CCTV footage of him participating in the violence”.
Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran and advocates Fauzia Shakil, Ahmad Ibrahim, Varisha Sharma, Shruti Narayan, Aryan Deol, M Huzaifa, Ayesha Zaidi, Nida Khan Salim and Ujjwal Singh appeared for Athar Khan.
Additional Solicitor General DP Singh along with advocates Shreya Dutt, Garima Saxena, Pranjal Singh, Anmol Chandan, Satitya Anand, Kartikeya Asthana and N Visakamurthy appeared for Delhi Police.
