Activist Khalid Saifi gets bail: 'Chargesheet shows the extent of police's vindictiveness'

New delhi: Granting bail to activist Khalid Saifi in connection with a case of conspiracy during the north-east Delhi riots earlier this year, a Delhi court observed that the chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police against the latter is based on "insignificant material" which has been filed by the police with a "total non-application of mind" which goes on to show their "extent of vindictiveness".

The present case being investigated by the Crime Branch against Saifi pertains to conspiracy and abetment of rioting near Chand Bagh Pulia on February 24. In his complaint, Constable Sangram Singh alleged that a mob gathered and indulged in stone-pelting and burning of vehicles at a parking lot, besides thrashing several persons.

In his order, Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav noted that apart from no form of electronic evidence such as CCTV footage from the area establishing his presence at the scene of crime (SOC) being recovered, "the applicant has been merely roped in on the basis of his own disclosure statement and another disclosure statement by co-accused Tahir Hussain".

On the prosecution's argument that Saifi has been in regular touch with co-accused Tahir Hussain and former JNU student Umar Khalid over the mobile phone where they produced the call detail records (CDR) of the January 8 meeting between them at Shaheen Bagh, the court stated that it "is hardly of any consequences, as prima facie that does not in any way go on to establish the criminal conspiracy alleged against the applicant".

Meanwhile, on the statement of a Public Witness (PW) Rahul Kasana about the January 8 meeting, ASJ Yadav noted that "the same does not disclose the subject matter of such meeting". Further, noting the Kasana is also a PW in the "main conspiracy" case being investigated by the Special Cell, the court said, "When his statement in the said case was recorded on May 21, he did not utter a single word about criminal conspiracy but now all of a sudden, in his statement on September 27, he has blown the trumpet of criminal conspiracy against the applicant".

Questioning the charge of criminal conspiracy against Saifi, the court stated, "Co-accused Hussain is accused in 10 other cases of this cluster of Chand Bagh puliya…but in no other case the applicant has been made the co-accused, even on the strength of material sought to be read against him in this matter". "I do not find any rationale in the act of police involving the applicant in this solitary case of criminal conspiracy," read the order.

Speaking on Kasana's claims where he said that "he was standing outside a building at Shaheen Bagh and saw Saifi and Umar Khalid go into the same building", ASJ Yadav observed, "I fail to understand from the statement how a lofty claim of conspiracy can be inferred…chargesheeting the applicant in this case on the basis of such an insignificant material is total non-application of mind by the police which goes to the extent of vindictiveness".