The Delhi High Court on Monday questioned the
necessity of granting interim bail to Tahir Hussain for the purpose of filing
his election nomination in the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls.
The Delhi Police opposed Tahir's interim bail plea,
citing the case of Amritpal Singh, who had filed his nomination from jail, as a
precedent.
The Delhi Police has opposed the interim bail plea
of AIMIM leader Tahir Hussain, who is seeking bail to contest and campaign in
the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. Hussain, an accused in the Ankit Sharma
murder case, has requested bail from January 14 to February 9 to participate in
the election process.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma
appeared for Delhi Police and referred the Amritpal Singh's Case, Where He
Filed a Nomination from Jail as a Precedent. Noted this, the Court raises
concern over the need for interim bail to file nomination.
The bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna of Delhi
High Court has fixed the matter for hearing tomorrow, along with his pending
regular bail petition, before the same bench.
The lawyer representing Tahir Hussain informed the
court that the nomination process had already begun. He also referenced the
Rashid Engineer case during the hearing to support his argument.
In addition to this, Tahir Hussain has also approached the trial
court for interim bail in other cases related to the Delhi riots and
Enforcement Directorate investigations.
Recently Delhi High Court issued a notice on the regular bail
petition filed by Tahir Hussain. The petition relates to the murder case of IB
officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 North East Delhi violence.
Hussain's plea contends that there is a lack of credible
evidence against him and seeks bail on the grounds of parity. The plea
contended that the applicant is accused of being an instigator and
co-conspirator. Of the 20 prosecution witnesses examined so far, the majority
of the alleged eyewitnesses have either not supported the prosecution's case or
provided testimony that lacks credibility and cannot be considered reliable.
The statements of police witnesses also contain significant
contradictions and embellishments, making them untrustworthy as evidence
against the applicant. The statements of the remaining public witnesses largely
mirror those of the witnesses previously examined in the case, the plea added.
In May, the Delhi High Court granted bail to three men involved in the killing
of Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma.
The court emphasised that bail is the general rule during the
pendency of a trial, while incarceration is an exception. It also noted that
the accused had been in custody for four years, and the trial was unlikely to
conclude shortly. A First Information Report (FIR) was filed by Ankit Sharma's
father in February 2020, after his son went out to buy groceries and other
household items but failed to return home for several hours. Concerned for his
son's safety, Sharma's father filed a missing person's report with the police.
According to Delhi Police, the four accused were part of a
violent mob that killed Sharma, and they were also involved in rioting and
arson during the clashes. The communal violence erupted in northeast Delhi on
February 24, 2020, when tensions between supporters of the Citizenship
Amendment Act (CAA) and protesters escalated, leading to at least 53 deaths and
numerous injuries.