NEW DELHI: Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Arul Verma of Saket Courts, who had discharged student activists Sharjeel Imam, Asif Iqbal Tanha, and ten others in the 2019 Jamia violence case last week, recused himself from hearing another similar matter, citing personal reasons. Judge Verma ordered the matter to be placed before the Principal District and Sessions for its transfer.
On February 4, Judge Verma had discharged Sharjeel Imam, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Safoora Zargar and eight others in a case related to violence at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019. He had come down heavily on the investigative agencies that they should be able to decide the difference between dissent and insurrection. The judge also held that Imam and others were roped in as “scapegoats” and had referred Gandhi’s quote: “Conscience is the source of dissent.”
“The desideratum is for the investigative agencies to discern the difference between dissent and insurrection. The latter has to be quelled indisputably,” the order said. “Liberty of protesting citizens should not have been lightly interfered with,” ASJ stated further in the order. Following this, the cops approached the Delhi High Court against the trial court order, which was on Friday allowed urgent listing. An FIR was lodged in connection with the violence that erupted after a clash between police and people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the Jamia Nagar area in the city in December 2019.
The Jamia Nagar police station had filed the charge sheet against student activists Imam, Asif Iqbal Tanha among ten others--Safoora Zargar, Mohammad Qasim, Mahmood Anwar, Shahzar Raza Khan, Mohammad Abuzar, Mohammad Shoaib, Umair Ahmad, Bilal Nadeem, Chanda Yadav and Mohammad Ilyas. Though 11 discharged in the case, the trial court, ordered framing of charges against one of the accused, Mohammad Ilyas.
Imam was accused of instigating the riots by delivering a provocative speech at the Jamia Milia University on December 13, 2019. He will remain in jail as he is an accused in the larger conspiracy case of the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
Awaiting justice in court of law