NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday rejected the bail applications of three persons arrested for raising communal slogans at a protest at Jantar Mantar last Sunday. Citing video recordings of the event, Metropolitan Magistrate Udbhav Kumar Jain noted that one of the accused, Deepak Singh, can be clearly seen making "undemocratic" remarks.
"In one of the video clippings, accused, as identified by the IO (investigating officer), 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," the court said.
Accused Preet Singh was seen with Deepak in the rally while accused Vinod Sharma was also present at the venue at the time of the alleged offence, the court observed. Jain said the trio could not be treated on parity with lawyer and former BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay, who was granted bail on Wednesday in connection with the same case.
He said that while citizens were allowed freedom to express themselves, with every right, there was a corresponding duty attached. "The principle behind Section 153A IPC 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," the court said.
The MM saw the video clippings and played part of it in open court. The court said it could not check the veracity of the clippings at present, but this was a matter for deliberation at later stage. "…There is no time stamp available at this stage on these video clippings for which proper investigation has to be done," it said.