Sambhal Violence: Supreme Court grants bail to three accused

The Supreme Court has granted bail to three men arrested in connection with last year’s violent clashes in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal, which erupted during a court-ordered survey near the Shahi Jama Masjid in November 2024.

A bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice R Mahadevan has directed that Danish, Faizan, and Nazir be released on bail, noting that they have been in jail since 2024. The trial court has been directed to set the conditions for their release.

Earlier this year, the Allahabad High Court had granted bail to Zafar Ali, the Chairman of the Sambhal Jama Masjid Committee, in connection with the case arising from alleged mob violence during a mosque survey.

On November 24, 2024, a civil court-appointed Commission attempted to conduct a survey of a mosque in Sambhal district. According to the First Information Report (FIR), a mob of 700–800 people, allegedly instigated by nominated accused Zia-Ur-Rahman Barq and others, obstructed the proceedings and damaged public property, including police vehicles.

While Zia-Ur-Rahman Barq and Suhail Iqbal were named in the FIR, Zafar Ali was not. He was later arrested on March 23, 2025, after appearing before the investigating officer in response to a notice under Section 179 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

Notably, the Allahabad High Court has stayed the proceedings before the Sambhal Civil Judge (Senior Division) in contentious property dispute involving Shahi Jama mosque, pending further orders from the high court.

The case revolves around the property claimed as both a mosque and a temple, stirring legal and religious sensitivities. The civil suit filed in the trial court seeks a declaration recognizing hindu plaintiffs' right of access to what they claim is the Shri Hari Har Temple, currently identified as the Jami Masjid in Sambhal's Kot Purvi locality. The plaintiffs also requested that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) take control of the site under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904. Additionally, they sought an injunction preventing interference in public access to the property.

Supreme Court is also seized of a case involving the dispute over the Shahi Jama Masjid and Harihar Temple in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh. The case arises from an appeal filed by the Masjid committee challenging the Allahabad High Court’s order upholding a civil court’s direction for a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid and Harihar Temple premises. The High Court had ruled that both the suit and the appointment of a court commissioner for the survey were maintainable.

The mosque committee had earlier moved the High Court against the November 19, 2023 order of the Sambhal civil judge directing a survey of the Mughal-era mosque, which was carried out the same day. A second survey followed on November 24. Supreme Court has questioned if the matter ought to be tagged with pending petitions concerning the validity of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.

Masjid Committee had sought a stay on the civil court's order, arguing that the survey was conducted in “hot haste.” According to the petition, the survey was ordered and completed within a day, followed by another survey with barely six hours’ notice. “The manner in which survey was ordered in this case and has been ordered in some other cases will have an immediate impact in a number of cases across the country that have been filed recently concerning places of worship where such orders will have a tendency to inflame communal passions, cause law and order problems and damage the secular fabric of the country,” the petition alleged.