Northeast Delhi Violence: Court denies bail to Gulfisha saying allegations are prima facie true

A Delhi Court dismissed the bail plea of Gulfisha Fatima an accused in a larger conspiracy case related to Northeast Delhi Violence considering that the allegations against the accused are prima facie true.

She was booked by Delhi Police Special Cell under Sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). It is alleged she was organising a protest at Jafrabad. The court held that the allegations against the accused are prima facie true.

However, she was granted bail by the Delhi High Court in another related FIR in connection with violence at Jafrabad in which one person named Aman died.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of Karkardooma Court on Wednesday dismissed the bail plea of student activist Gulfisha Fatima. He said on the perusal of the charge-sheet and accompanying documents, for the limited purpose of the bail, I am of the opinion that allegations against the accused Gul alias Gulfisha are prima facie true.

It was alleged by the prosecution that three WhatsApp groups of JCC were created by Gulfisha Fatima instead of Safoora and Asif was not made a part of this group. The three groups were JCC JMI Officials, JMI and JCC-JMI.

The Court rejected the contention that the bail should be granted on the ground of the parity as bail was granted to accused Devangana, Natasha and Asif Iqbal Tanha by the Delhi High Court on June 15, 2021. As the judgment was stayed by the Supreme Court on June 18, 2021.

The prosecution had argued that there is sufficient material on record to establish that the accusation against the accused Gulfisha is prima facie true and hence the bail application of the accused may be dismissed.

Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad had vehemently argued that Delhi riots 2020 was a large-scale and deep-rooted conspiracy hatched after the passing of the resolution by the Cabinet Committee to present CAB in both Houses of Parliament on December 4, 2019.

SPP argued that in this entire conspiracy, there were various organizations like Pinjra Tod, AAZMI, SIO, SFI, etc through individual which participated. There was a centrality of JCC in the eco-system. 23 protest sites were created in Muslim majority areas close to mosques/majar and close to main roads. The idea was to escalate protest to chakka-jam, once critical is generated and at an appropriate time to eventually lead to violence against police and then others.

Advocate Mehmood Pracha had argued that "the accused Gulfisha was only participating in the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest which is not a crime. In fact, such protests were happening all across India. The Charge-sheet is silent on the aspect of why the violence took place in Delhi. There were also pro-CAA protests going on, which is not reflected in the contents of the charge sheet but is mentioned in several other FIR registered by Delhi Police in riots cases."

( With inputs from ANI )