NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has dismissed the application of student activist Gulfisha Khatoon, arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), seeking statutory bail in a case related to the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February. The court also dismissed the applications of Saleem Khan and Tasleem Ahmed, arrested in the case under UAPA, seeking statutory bail.
Khatoon, Khan and Ahmed had sought statutory bail because the charge sheet was not filed within the mandatory period of 90 days and the court, which was presently hearing the matter, did not have jurisdiction over the case.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat said the period for completion of investigation in the case was extended till September 17 and the charge sheet was filed on September 16; its cognisance was taken the next day. The court said in its order passed on October 19, that the Delhi High Court had authorised the sessions court for the trial of cases relating to the February riots in which scheduled offences under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, were also made out.‘Regarding the competence of this court/ undersigned (Sessions Judge Rawat) to deal with the present matter, the same is without merit...,’ it said in its order.
During the hearing, advocate Mehmood Pracha, appearing for the three, argued that no charge-sheet has been filed in the case within 90 days and thus they must be released on statutory bail. Gulfisha has been in judicial custody in the case since April and Ahmed and Khan since June.
With agency inputs