Delhi Riots: Court Denies Bail To Tasleem Ahmed In UAPA Larger Conspiracy Case

A Delhi Court on Thursday denied bail to Tasleem Ahmed, accused in the case registered under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, alleging a larger conspiracy in the 2020 North-East Delhi riots.

Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai rejected Ahmed's plea seeking regular bail on the ground of parity with co-accused persons namely Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha who were granted bail by the Delhi High Court.

The court said that the High Court gave opinion specifically about the co-accused persons and then concluded that limitations and restrictions on grant of bail under section 43D(5) ofUA(P)A do not apply.

“As such it is important to note that the opinion of the Hon'ble High Court is with respect to the co-accused persons only and is not general and therefore, cannot be considered for any other accused including the applicant,” the court said.

The judge added that the bar under section 43D(5) was lifted by the High Court only with regard to the co-accused persons and not for any other accused, including Ahmed, and thus, the court was still bound by the same.

“It is to be noted that in the case in hand the bail application of the applicant was dismissed by the ld. predecessor vide order dated 16.03.2022 in which he has already concluded that on the perusal of the charge sheet and accompanied documents, for the limited purpose of the bail, in his opinion the allegations against the accused Tasleem Ahmed were prima-facie true,” the court said.

This is the second time when the court has denied regular bail to Ahmed. His first bail plea was dismissed by the predecessor bench in March 2022.

Denying bail to Ahmed, the court said that the predecessor bench further opined that there were reasonable grounds for believing that the accusations against him were prima-facie true.

“Surprisingly, the said order of the ld. predecessor order has not been challenged by the applicant and this court now cannot review its own order and give any contrary opinion,” the judge said.

FIR 59 of 2020 is being probed by Delhi Police's Special Cell. The case has been registered under various offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The accused in the case are Tahir Hussain, Umar Khalid, Khalid Saifi, Isharat Jahan, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Mohd. Saleem Khan, Athar Khan, Safoora Zargar, Sharjeel Imam, Faizan Khan and Natasha Narwal.

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