NEW DELHI: A court here on Tuesday dismissed the bail applications of eight persons arrested by Delhi Police in a case related to the violent protest and vandalism outside the residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently.
Additional Session Judge Naveen Kashyap noted that the protesters had no regard even for the directions issued by Delhi High Court which were communicated to them by the Delhi Police that no protest is allowed at the CM house.
The court denied relief to Chander Kant Bharadwaj, Naveen Kumar, Neeraj Dixit, Sunny, Jitender Singh Bisht, Pradeep Kumar Tiwari, Raju Kumar Singh, and Bablu Kumar.
The judge said there was no doubt that the right to assemble and protest by the political party was a fundamental right, but such a right was subject to certain restrictions and not an uncontrolled one.
"In the present case, it is not a simple case that they protested and ended their protest then and there. But as per the investigation carried and reply filed by the Police, despite telling protesters and their leaders, including the present applicants, they can protest at a particular place, they did not comply with the same," the court noted.
It noted that not at one stage but at three different security layers of barricades 1, barricade 2 and barricade 3, they violated the directions of the police officials concerned.
"Further, it may be noted that such protesters had no regard even to the directions issued by High Court which were communicated to them, as per the reply of Delhi Police, that no protest is allowed at CM house, as they still continued with their protest," it said.
It added that "prima facie", it appeared that the accused persons even caused damage to public property and injured the police officials.
"Thus, prima facie it is clear that their fundamental right to peacefully protest is exceeded by them knowingly/intentionally," the court said.
The court further noted that the investigation was at the very initial stage.
According to the reports, visuals from outside Kejriwal's residence on March 30, showed protestors casually walking through the police security cordon, kicking and breaking boom barriers, breaking CCTV cameras with sticks, throwing paint at the gate, and attempting to climb over the entrance gate.