Delhi High Court grants interim custody bail to Delhi riots accused Asif Iqbal Tanha for university exams

The Delhi High Court has granted interim custody bail to Delhi riots accused, Asif Iqbal Tanha to enable him to sit for his university examination. .As per the direction issued by a Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup J Bhambhani, Tanha would be released on interim custody bail on June 13 and shall be brought back to prison on June 26, 2021.."It goes without saying that the applicant shall not in any way misuse or abuse the guarded liberty hereby granted to him by way of interim custody bail..By way of abundant clarity, the period spent by the applicant on interim custody bail would be counted as period undergone in prison as an undertrial.", the Court said. .As agreed between parties, during the period of interim custody bail, Tanha would stay at a facility in Kalkaji under the custody of two prison guards, at his own cost and expense..The Court also recorded Tanha's undertaking that he would not use the laptop, computer or mobile phone or the dongle/mobile hotspot device for any purpose other than for purposes of study, preparations and taking of the examinations. .After the expiry of the period, Tanha would hand-over the laptop computer and mobile phone for forensic audit, the Court added. .Unless there is compelling reason to do otherwise, the SHO shall permit all necessary books, reading material etc to be handed-over to the applicant with due expedition, the Court said. .The Court clarified that the order shall not be treated as a precedent..Asif Iqbal Tanha is a student pursuing his final year of B.A. (Hons.) (Persian) Programme at Jamia Millia Islamia. He was arrested in the Delhi riots case under UAPA in May 2020 and has been in continuous custody since then. .Tanha sought accommodation from the State to enable him to sit for remaining three backlog/compartment examinations in his course. .While no formal status report was filed by the State, Tanha's counsel came-up with a "constructive solution" to enable Tanha to sit for the online examination without compromising his custody..Order in Tanha's regular bail plea is presently reserved by the Court. .Advocate Sowjhanya Shankaran appeared for Tanha. State was represented by SPPs Amit Mahajan, Amit Prasad..Read the order: