'Remarks scathing & undemocratic': Three denied bail
New Delhi: While noting that the accused persons made "scathing remarks" which were "undemocratic" and "uncalled for" from a citizen of this country where principles of secularism hold the value of basic feature imbibed in the constitution, a Delhi court has denied bail to three persons who had been arrested for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches at Jantar Mantar on Sunday as part of a protest against "colonial-era laws" organised by Supreme Court advocate and former BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay.
In a largely similar order for all three accused, namely Preet Singh, Deepak Singh and Vinod Sharma, Link Metropolitan Magistrate Udbhav Kumar Jain has observed that in one of the videos, the accused can be seen making "scathing remarks" which are "undemocratic" and "uncalled for" from a citizen of this country where principles like secularism hold the value of basic feature imbibed in the Constitution.
"Freedom to express oneself is indeed allowed to be enjoyed by the citizen to the fullest possible extent, yet with every right there is a corresponding duty attached," the order read, adding that the principle behind Section 153A IPC (Promoting enmity on grounds of caste religion, etc.) is to preserve religious/communal harmony and it is the duty of every citizen that while he enjoys his right to express himself, he preserves religious harmony. "This indeed is the positive aspect of Secularism," the court further observed.
While noting thus, MM Jain also said that the court cannot check the veracity of these video clippings which was a matter of appreciation of evidence to be done at a later stage and that proper investigation needs to be done with regard to the videos.
Meanwhile, commenting on bail on grounds of parity raised by the defence counsel, the court stated for all the three accused that their case stood on a different footing than Upadhyay, who has already been granted bail in the case, observing that Upadhyay was neither seen in any of the video footages nor was he seen prima facie raising any communal slogans at the event.
Senior Advocate Ashwini Dubey, representing all the three accused, had contended before the court that the applicants were not even present at the gathering at the time of the offence and that from the mere reading of the FIR, nothing inculpatory can be ascertained even prima facie against the accused.
