Trial court got swayed by allegations, no reason to refuse bail to Sharjeel Imam: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court recently noted that the trial court which denied statutory bail to activist Sharjeel Imam in a sedition and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case got swayed by the enormity of allegations against him. .A Division Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain added that there was nothing before the trial court which could have disentitled Imam from seeking relief under Section 436A (which deals with statutory bail) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).“Learned Trial Court got swayed by the enormity of the allegations, observing that he had made inflammatory speeches which resulted in riots, the bail was declined… In the case in hand, we do not find any justifiable reason which could have compelled the Court from not granting the relief... we have no hesitation in holding that there was, actually speaking, nothing on record which could have disentitled the accused from seeking relief under Section 436-A CrPC,” the High Court held..The Court made these observations in its May 29 order granting statutory bail to Imam in a case registered against him for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and in Delhi’s Jamia area..The Bench referred to a previous judgement and said that merely because the allegations against an accused were serious, it could not be grounds to reject the relief of statutory bail.“If any such accused has merely attempted to avail legal remedies, it cannot be taken as an adverse conduct, disentitling him seeking release. accused has merely attempted to avail legal remedies, it cannot be taken as an adverse conduct, disentitling him seeking release," the High Court said. .Imam had approached the High Court against a trial court order denying him bail in the sedition case.He argued that he had already spent four years in jail out of the maximum sentence of seven years and is, therefore, eligible for statutory bail.He added that the offence of sedition has been kept in abeyance by the Supreme Court of India and that the UAPA provisions invoked against him do not carry more than a seven-year sentence.In an order passed on February 17, the trial court denied bail to Imam holding that even though speeches and other activities by Imam against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) did not contain any exhortation to people to pick up weapons or kill people, they did mobilise the public which might be the main reason for the outbreak of the Delhi riots.Imam's speeches were so powerful that it captured the imagination of people belonging to a particular community and incited them to take part in disruptive activities which resulted in riots, Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai had opined. Imam challenged this trial court order before the High Court, which allowed his plea on May 29. Imam, however, continues to remain in jail since he is also an accused in the larger conspiracy case connected to the Delhi riots..Advocates Talib Mustafa, Ahmad Ibrahim, Raksha Agarwal, Kartik Venu, Shaurca Tyagi and Ayesha Zaidi appeared for Sharjeel Imam.The Delhi Police was represented by Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Rajat Nair and advocate Dhruv Pande..[Read Judgement]