Patiala House Court ordered a verification report for sureties of nine accused granted bail in the AI Summit protest case. Their final release is on hold pending the report. Meanwhile, one accused, Siddharth Avdhoot, was denied bail.
Court Seeks Verification for Bailed Accused
In the AI Summit protest case, the Patiala House Court on Monday called for a verification report regarding the sureties and documents furnished for the nine accused who were recently granted bail. The court directed that the bail bonds and surety documents be verified before the final release of the accused.
The matter has been listed for March 3 for the filing of this verification report. Duty Magistrate Charan Salwan called for a verification report from the Crime Branch of the Delhi police. The court will issue a release warrant once the report is filed
Bail Granted to Nine, One Denied
The Patiala house court on Sunday evening granted bail to nine accused persons arrested in the AI Summit protest case. Bail plea of Siddharth Avdhoot was dismissed. He has been sent for four days for further police custody.
Duty Magistrate Ravi granted bail to nine accused on a bail bond of Rs. 25000 and one surety bond. Bail bonds will be furnished tomorrow. The court has granted bail to Krishna Hari, Kundan Yadav, Narsimha Yadav, Ajay Singh, Saurabh, Arbaz Khan, Ajay Kumar Vimal, Raja Gujar and Jitendra Yadav.
Arguments During Bail Hearing
Delhi Police opposed the bail pleas of the accused persons. Senior advocate Tanvir Ahmed Mir alongwith advocates Roopesh Singh Bhadauria, Litesh Batra and Chitwan Godara, appeared for the accused persons.
Senior advocate Mir submitted that the police have taken custody of the accused for almost 9 days. Now, the Police sought custodial remand of one accsued Siddharth Avdhoot, and judicial custody of 9 accused. Senior Advocate Tanvir Ahmed Mir argued that the accused shouldn't be denied bail, citing 9 days of custody already served, no flight risk or evidence tampering concerns, the protest was peaceful, exercising freedom of expression and the charges carry less than 5-year imprisonment.
Prosecution Opposes Bail Pleas
Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Shrivastav, alongwith Advocate Prashant Prakash, opposed the bail pleas of all 9 accsued persons. He pressed for the judicial custody of 9 accused and 4 days of police custody of Siddharth Avdhoot.
During the hearing, a joint CP, a DCP, an ACP alongwith investigation team of the crime branch were present during the hearing. APP Atul Shrivastav submitted that it was not a simple protest; it was organised by political party members. They have a right to protest. But it was organised when the AI Impact summit was going on, the entire system was at Work. This protest brought a badlight to the country.
While opposing the bail plea, Delhi Police stated that the accused concealed criminal history, protest disrupted an international event, impacting India's image. Structured planning involved, with Siddharth Avdhoot's key role, flight risk and evidence recovery concerns were also raised by the Delhi Police.
Earlier, bail pleas were rejected by this court of 4 accused namely Krishna Hari, Kundan Yadav, Ajay Singh and Narsimha Yadav were rejected by this court, the Delhi police said. (ANI)
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