Vandalism outside Kejriwal's residence: HC grants bail to 8 protesters

The Delhi High Court has granted bail to eight people arrested by Delhi Police over the recent incident of protest and vandalism outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence.

The bench of Justice Asha Menon on Tuesday, while passing the order said, "Since the nature of the evidence is such, there is no possibility of the applicants tampering with the evidence or inducing or threatening any witness."

"With regard to the damage caused to public property, which cannot be at any stage certainly overlooked, the facts are to be considered to reckon what damage has been caused. Here, the allegations are that the protestors have vandalised some of the CCTV cameras and an arm of a boom barrier and had also smeared paint on the main gate of the CM Residence. There is no allegation of damage to public property through arson and fire or other means on a scale that would clearly be a far more serious matter than what has been alleged against the applicants. The applicants are mostly in their twenties except for three who are older," noted the court.

 

The court further said, "The evidence collected so far is of such a nature that the applicants cannot tamper with it. Others who had been identified in the photos have been issued notices under Section 41A CrPC and are also participating in the investigations. Thus, the continued custody of the applicants in jail is not called for only because some investigations are still going on."

"The court, therefore, allows the bail applications and grants bail to all the applicants each of them furnishing a personal bond and a surety bond for a sum of Rs 35,000 each. The applicants shall not leave NCT of Delhi without intimating the SHO concerned," said the court order.

Last week, the trial Court, denied bail to eight arrested persons namely Chander Kant Bhardwaj, Naveen Kumar, Neeraj Dixit, Sunny Jitender Singh Bisht, Pradeep Kumar Tiwari, Raju Kumar Singh and Bablu Kumar, said that such protesters had no regard even to the directions issued by the Delhi High Court which were communicated to them, as per the reply of Delhi Police, that no protest is allowed at CM house.

"There is no doubt that the right to assemble and protest by a political party is a fundamental right. But having noted so it can also be noted that such a right is subjected to certain restrictions and not an uncontrolled one," the trial court had said.

Recently the Delhi High Court has also sought a status report from Delhi Police over the incident of violent Protest and vandalism outside the Delhi Chief Minister and also directed to preserve the CCTV footage of the incident.

In Delhi HC, the plea sought direction for the constitution of a Special Investigation Team to undertake an independent, fair and time-bound criminal investigation with respect to the attack and its perpetrators.

Petitioner also alleged that the attack was done by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) workers and appears to have been carried out with Delhi Police's tacit complicity.

Visuals from outside Kejriwal's residence on March 30, showed protestors casually walking through the police security cordon, kicking and breaking boom barriers, breaking CCTV cameras with lathis, throwing paint at the gate and attempting to climb over the entrance gate, while Delhi Police personnel simply looked on, doing little to stop the protestors, stated plea.

Saurabh Bhardwaj, sitting MLA from AAP stated that the party strongly supports the right to protest peacefully, even if such protest is against the Delhi government, it is submitted that in the name of protest, violence cannot and ought not to be permitted and condoned, plea stated.