Delhi HC seeks response on Tahir Hussain's bail plea in UAPA case

New Delhi [India], June 10 : The Delhi High Court sought a response on the appeal of Tahir Hussain against the denial of bail by the trial court in the larger conspiracy of the Delhi riots case.
Tahir Hussain is an accused in the larger Conspiracy of the Delhi riots case under UAPA. He is seeking regular bail. His earlier bail plea was rejected by the trial court.
A division bench of justices Neena Bansal, Krishna, and Madhu Jain issued notice to Delhi Police and sought a response within 4 weeks.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju alongwith Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Madhukar Pandey, appeared for the Delhi police.
ASG Raju submitted that there is a delay of 187 days in filing the appeal against the order of the trial court.
Advocate Rajiv Mohan alongwith Sonal Sarda, appeared for Tahir Hussain and submitted that the issue regarding the delay is pending before the Supreme Court.
The bench also sought a response on the application seeking condonation of the delay. The High Court has listed the matter for hearing on July 16.
On June 1, the Delhi High Court judge Justice Amit Sharma had recused from hearing the bail plea of Tahir Hussain.
Advocate Tara Narula has filed the bail application on behalf of Tahir Hussain. It is stated that the trial court had wrongly rejected the bail plea. It is also stated that Tahir Hussain has been in custody for more than 6 years.
On January 29, Delhi's Karkardooma Court had rejected regular bail pleas of Tahir Hussain, Athar Khan and Saleem Malik alias Munna who has been granted bail by the High court.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sameer Bajpai had rejected, saying that there is no merit in the applications in view of the legal provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The Supreme Court, on January 5, granted bail to five accused in the case. The bail pleas of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam were rejected by the apex court.
"Now, despite the order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court regarding co-accused persons, when this Court has once formed the opinion that prima facie a case is made out against the applicant, no other different opinion can be formed now by reviewing the earlier order," ASJ Bajpai said in the order passed on January 29.
While dismissing the bail plea of Tahir Hussain, the court said, "Accordingly, the Court doesn't find merits in the application, and the same is hereby dismissed."
The court had earlier also dismissed the bail application of Tahir Hussain on March 30, 2024 and had said the Allegations against the Accused are prima facie true.
"In the earlier order, this Court also observed that a prima facie case was there against the applicant and the bar under section 43D(5) OF UAPA was there, and therefore, the case of the applicant was not a fit case for bail," the court said in the order.
In this case, Tahir Hussain, Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Ishrat Jahan, Safoora Zargar and others are accused in this case. They are charge-sheeted under the IPC and the UAPA. The matter is at the stage of arguments on charges.