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The Delhi Court today passed an order for release of Asif Iqbal Tanha, Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita accused in the Delhi Riots case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Additional Sessions Judge at karkardooma Courts Ravinder Bedi said that the Court had passed an order and warrants for release have been sent to the prison authorities through email.

The Court in its order recorded that verification reports should have been filed by the investigating officers yesterday since all the sureties belonged to Delhi. On the argument that the investigating officer requires more time to verify the permanent addresses of the accused, the Court said “this by itself cannot be a plausible reason for the accused to be kept imprisoned till the time such reports are filed.”

On June 15, the Delhi High Court bench led by Justices Siddhartha Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani had passed an order granting bail to the three observing that there was nothing in the chargesheet which would make-out the ingredients of the offences under sections 15, 17 or 18 of the UAPA.

Taking a stern view on the allegations made against the Pinjra Tod Activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita the Court said “Foisting extremely grave and serious penal provisions engrafted in sections 15, 17 and 18 UAPA frivolously upon people, would undermine the intent and purpose of the Parliament in enacting a law that is meant to address threats to the very existence of our Nation”.

Though the bail order had been passed by the High Court, the Trial Court refused to pass an immediate order for release of the three and sought verification of their addresses and sureties.

On June 16, when the matter was taken up before the Trial Court, the investigating officer submitted that more time was required for verifying the address of the accused since he had to travel to Assam to verify the address.

Pursuant to it, an application was filed before the Delhi High Court today where the Counsel appearing for Tanha, Natasha and Devangana submitted that despite complying with Courts order, they were not being released by the Trial Court and the verification reports have not been filed despite the expiry of the time granted for the same.

The bench led by Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani observed that “the Trial court cannot be lax once there is a bail order”.