Conspiracy to disturb law and order,HC on Delhi riots

The Delhi High Court has termed that there was “pre-planned and pre-meditated conspiracy to disturb law and order in the Delhi” and events “did not take place in a spur of the moment”.Justice Subramonium Prasad on Monday,while dealing with a bail application moved by one Mohd Ibrahim in the case concerning the alleged murder of Delhi Police head constable Ratan Lal, observed that there was a systematic disconnection and destruction of the CCTV cameras in areas near the place of the incident and “innumerable rioters ruthlessly descended with sticks, dandas, bats, etc. upon a hopelessly outnumbered cohort of police officials”.

The Court refused to grant bail to an accused in a case concerning the northeast Delhi riots of 2020. “The riots which shook the National Capital of the country in February 2020 evidently did not take place in a spur of the moment, and the conduct of the protestors who are present in the video footage which has been placed on record by the prosecution visibly portrays that it was a calculated attempt to dislocate the functioning of the Government as well as to disrupt the normal life of the people in the city,” the court said.

The judge while acknowledging the importance of personal liberty in a democratic polity, clarified that “individual liberty cannot be misused in a manner that threatens the very fabric of civilized society by attempting to destabilise it and cause hurt to other persons”. The court, in a separate order, granted bail to one Saleem Khan, saying that in the absence of any material to show that he was a part of the unlawful assembly at the crime scene, the veracity of the allegations levelled against him can be tested during trial.