Sharjeel Imam, Asif Iqbal Tanha and Safoora Zargar and 8 others all acquitted by Saket District
Sharjeel Imam, a student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and student activist Asif Iqbal Tanha were exonerated by a Delhi court on Saturday of all the charges in connection with the violence that broke out following a conflict between the Delhi Police and protesters against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Delhi court released JNU student Sharjeel Imam and 10 other people in connection with the violence that erupted near Jamia Millia Islamia University in 2019, highlighting the fact that “dissent was an extension of fundamental right to freedom of speech” and noting that the police were successful in using the accused as “scapegoats.”
Discharging #SharjeelImam #SafooraZargar #AsifIqbalTanha and eight others in Jamia violence case, a Delhi Court on Saturday observed that the police was unable to apprehend “actual perpetrators” and “surely managed to rope the them as scapegoats”
Read more:https://t.co/Ry5vZUpSKH pic.twitter.com/ZtQcGObxcJ— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) February 4, 2023
The judge said that “it would be pertinent to underscore that dissent is nothing but an extension of the invaluable fundamental right to Freedom of Speech and Expression contained in Article 19 of the Constitution of India, subject to the restrictions. Therefore, it is a right we are sworn to uphold.”
“When something is repugnant to our conscience, we refuse to obey it. This disobedience is constituted by duty. It becomes our duty to disobey anything repugnant to our conscience,” the court said.
The Chief Justice of India, Justice D Y Chandrachud, quoted the ASJ saying that “the basis of all growth—political, economic, cultural, and social—is destroyed when places for inquiry and dissent are destroyed. Dissent is a democratic safety valve in this sense.
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ASJ Varma said that allowing the accused persons to “undergo the rigmarole of a long-drawn trial does not augur well for the criminal justice system of our country”. “Furthermore, such a police action is detrimental to the liberty of citizens who choose to exercise their fundamental right to assemble and protest peacefully,” the court said.
The judge also advised that the investigative agencies “should have incorporated the use of technology, or have gathered credible intelligence, and then only should have embarked on galvanizing the judicial system.”
“Else, it should have abstained from filing such ill-conceived chargesheets qua persons whose role was confined only to being a part of a protest,” the court said.
Bail was granted for both Asif Iqbal Tanha and Sharjeel Imam in the past. However, due to the strict Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Sharjeel will continue to be imprisoned in the conspiracy case involving the riots in northeast Delhi in February 2020.
In connection with the racial unrest that broke out after a fight between police and those protesting the CAA, police had filed an FIR under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including rioting.
According to the prosecution, Imam allegedly threatened to split off Assam and other Northeastern regions from the rest of India during talks at Jamia Millia Islamia University on December 13, 2019, and Aligarh Muslim University on December 16, 2019.
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