NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant bail to a student accused of inciting violence during an industrial workers’ protest in Noida on April 13, asking her to approach the Allahabad High Court instead.
A bench of Justices B. V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing the plea of Aakriti Chaudhary, a Delhi University student accused in the case.
"Why don't you go to high court ? Everybody comes here by filing petition under Article 32 of the Constitution. There are 93,000 cases pending in the Supreme Court," the bench observed.
Chaudhary’s counsel argued that police had failed to provide grounds of arrest and sought bail, stating that she was a postgraduate student from Daulat Ram College in Delhi.
The apex court, however, issued notice to Uttar Pradesh police officials on a separate plea filed by Keshaw Anand alleging custodial torture.
A Noida court had earlier allowed conditional police remand of three women, Chaudhary, Manisha Chauhan and Srishti Gupta, accused of inciting violence during the industrial workers' protest on April 13.
The court had also allowed their lawyers to be present during investigation proceedings.
Chaudhary and Gupta are both from Delhi and in their 20s.
Chaudhary has a masters in history from Daulat Ram College, while Chauhan is a worker with an industrial unit in Noida.
In the application for custody, police contended that there was "full possibility of getting important evidence from the place of residence of the accused".
Protests by factory workers demanding a hike in wages turned violent in parts of Noida last month.
According to officials, a large number of workers from various industrial units gathered to press for their long-pending demand for salary revision and raised slogans during the demonstration.
The protest, however, escalated into violence as some participants allegedly vandalised property, pelted stones and set a vehicle on fire.
(With inputs from PTI)