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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court has recently granted bail to one Azhar Khan accused of rioting, assaulting police officers, and damaging public property in Uttar Pradesh during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

A bench of Justice Vivek Chaudhary without expressing any opinion on the merit of the case allowed bail to Khan.

Filing the bail Azhar argued that he is the Ex-Chairman of the Nagar Panchayat and is a politically active person and, therefore, a large number of cases with regard to demonstrations that he had conducted from time to time are lodged against him.

The plae submitted, "In the present case also there was a demonstration going on in which applicant had participated in a peaceful manner and there is no evidence that the applicant had in any manner caused disharmony or any damage to any person or public property."

Without disputing the arguments made by the applicant, the Additional Government Advocate submitted that being a political person the accused is an influential and effective person and there are repeated such cases reported against him in which property was damaged and even in the present case, law and order situation was seriously disturbed and he was present during the demonstration but he did not take any steps to calm down the situation.

While imposing certain conditions, the High Court allowed Azhar on bail.

It has been alleged that to protest against NRC and CAA, Muslim Clerics (Ulemas) of Rampur city had called the public at Eidgah on December 21, 2019. Later, a crowd consisting of 116 persons named in the FIR and thousands of unknown persons having arms, sutli bombs, and petrol bombs in their hands reached the crossing and made slogans against the police and attacked the police with bricks and Sutli bombs. 

However, when the police appealed to them to disperse, they assaulted the police and also caused damage to the police bikes by setting fire and also caused damage to the nearby shops. 

Azahar Khan is accused of offences under Sections 147, 148, 149, 307, 302, 353, 186, 143, 323, 333, 188, 435, 336, 427, 395, 325, 120-B IPC and Section 3/4 of Public Property (Prevention of Damages) Act and Section 7 Criminal Law Amendment Act.

Case Title: Azhar Khan Vs. State of UP