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The Delhi High Court has issued notice on a bail plea of one Shoaib Alam, one of the accused in the Delhi Riots' murder case of former Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma which said, "there cannot be an umbrella assumption of guilt on behalf of every accused person who was present in the mob."

It added that, "if an inference of guilt of the Applicant is assumed/accepted basis statements of witnesses such as Pradeep Verma, Shamshad Pradhan, HC Rahul and Ct. Praveen Kumar, then every single member present in the mob of 1500-2000 people can be held liable for the murder of the deceased Ankit Sharma."

Ankit Sharma, an Officer working with the Intelligence Bureau, had left his house at around 5 pm on February 25, 2020 for buying groceries and general household items, however, he did not return home even after several hours, instead his dead body was found lying in a drain near Chand Bagh Pulia with sharp injuries on his head, face, chest, back and on his waist.

The incident took part in Dayalpur at a time when North-East Delhi was shaking with anti-CAA protests sparking riots.

The case was being heard by a bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad. 

The matter has been posted for hearing on Nov 23. 

Stating that the accused has spent over 600 days in judicial custody, the plea filed by Advocates Tara Narula, Tamanna Pankaj, Aparajita Sinha and S Debabrata Reddy states that Alam has been in custody since Mar 9 and had both his bail petitions rejected by the Sessions Court.

According to the bail plea, the prosecution has not established the role of the accused in the incident which is the subject matter of the FIR.

Cause Title: Shoaib Alam @ Bobby vs State of NCT of Delhi