New Delhi, February 12 A Delhi court on Thursday reserved its order on the bail plea of 12 accused in an incident involving stone-pelting during the demolition exercise near the Faiz-e-Elahi mosque in Turkman Gate last month.
Additional Sessions Judge Bhupinder Singh heard the final arguments of the accused in the case on Thursday and reserved the order for February 16.
The 12 accused seeking bail are Mohammad Kaif, Mohammad Kashif, Mohammad Ubaidullah, Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Adnan, Sameer Hussain, Mohammad Naved, Mohammad Athar, Mohammad Areeb, Mohammad Aadil, Amir Hamza, and Adnan.
The counsel for Adnan, Mohammad Aadil, and Amir Hamza argued that the three accused did not come from outside the Turkman Gate area with the sole intention of joining the unrest, but they were present there as they are local residents of the area.
Referring to the "inciting messages" found on the phones of one of the accused, the counsel argued that his client had only forwarded the messages but was not the original creator of the clips or the messages.
He also accused the prosecution of "manipulating the story" at a later stage, as the "inciting messages" were never mentioned in the FIR, even though the police had their devices in custody for a considerable period.
He further argued that the charge of attempt to murder under Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code (307 IPC) was too grave for what happened that night. While the medico-legal case (MLC) shows injuries on vital parts like the head and face, none of the injuries occurred with the common object and intention of causing death to the policemen.
"Why are we going for Section 307 IPC (109 BNS) when Section 336 IPC (125 BNS, acts endangering life or personal safety) or Section 324 (117 BNS, voluntarily causing hurt) suffice in such a case of unrest where things simply got out of control?" he said.
Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Shrivastava rebutted the precedents used by the defence counsel to exonerate the accused for "simply forwarding a text message", noting that there is a clear distinction between criminal conspiracy and harbouring.
In the precedents cited by the counsel, the messages were shared after the commission of the offence, so it amounted to harbouring, while in the present case, they were shared prior to the incident which instigated more people to join the unrest, the APP said.
He argued that police personnel at the site of the incident were there to discharge their duty on the orders of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi High Court.
"If you were asked to disperse by the police after such an order had passed and you refused to move, it would be presumed that you participated (in the unrest)," he said.
"Any sane person would know the consequences of joining such a crowd and spreading such misinformed and inciting messages. Yet the accused participated," he added.
The defence counsel for Mohammad Imran argued that there is CCTV evidence of him going out of his house to the market at the time of the incident and coming back after a short interval with hands filled with bags from the marketplace. There is no evidence he was at the site of the incident throwing stones at the time, he said.
He argued that Imran suffered from back problems and mobility issues which affected his gait, making it slow and pronounced. The counsel offered to share medical records with the court for the same.
"Even walking to the site of the incident and coming back would be a struggle with his mobility issues, how do you expect him to throw stones?" he asked the court.
On January 24, a separate sessions court granted bail to Ubaidullah after the first bail order of January 20 was set aside and sent back to the sessions court by the Delhi High Court.
The case pertains to the violence during an anti-encroachment drive near the mosque in the Ramlila Maidan area on the intervening night of January 6 and 7. The police said rumours were spread on social media that the mosque opposite Turkman Gate was being demolished, prompting people to gather at the spot.
It has been alleged that around 150-200 people hurled stones and glass bottles at the police and MCD personnel, injuring six policemen, including the area's station house officer (SHO).