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The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice on the appeal filed by President of Jamia Milia Islamia Alumni Association, Shifa-Ur-Rehman challenging the trial court order denying him bail in connection with the Delhi riots conspiracy case (FIR 59/2020) 

A Division Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Anish Dayal has listed the matter before a division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar, who is already hearing other pending appeals arising out of the same case . 

Background

Rehman was denied bail by an order of the trial court dated April 7, 2022 pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat. 

Rehman had argued that merely being a protestor is not an offence and that every person is entitled to have one's own political opinion. He further argued that none of the other office bearers of the association had been made an accused. 

Advocate appearing for Rehman, Abhishek Singh had also raised objections at prosecution using words like "protestors" and "rioters" interchangeably. He argued that if all protestors were rioters, they all should have been booked like Rehman.

“There is a difference between protestors and rioters. Protest is a fundamental right. Here I am arguing why he is placed in the bracket of rioters and not protestors. He paid some amount for protestors but does that amount to an offence under UAPA”, Singh had submitted 

The Prosecution on the other hand argued that the 2020 sit-in protests were carefully planned, picking strategic protest sites which were close to mosques. The prosecution had referred to a December 20, 2019 meeting which was attended by co accused Umar Khalid, harsh Mander, United Against Hate members, Swatantra Nagrik Sangathan, etc., arguing that the said meeting was key in deciding the areas of protest and strategies to mitigate police clashes by keeping women and children at the forefront. 

The main thrust of the prosecution's argument was that the DPSG group was a highly sensitive group where every small message was privately deliberated and then passed forward to other members. Thus, the prosecution had also argued that there was a "conspiracy of silence" in committing the 2020 North Delhi riots, which was aimed at paralysing the entire city.

Cause Title:- Shafi ur Rehman v State of NCT of Delhi