The Allahabad High Court on Thursday gave bail to Azahar Khan, accused of rioting, manhandling policemen and damaging public property during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Uttar Pradesh in 2020.
Seeking bail, Mr. Khan said he was a former zilla panchayat chairman, politically active and had to participate in many demonstrations which led to many cases being lodged against him in past.
Reportedly, Muslim clerics in Rampur had called for public demonstration against the CAA and the NRC at city’s Eidgah on December 21, 2019. Later amid prevailing tension, the clerics assured the city police that the demonstration had been called off. But a crowd of hundreds of people with arms and petrol bombs raised slogans against the police and attacked them. The police appealed to the agitators to disperse but they reportedly continued their attack and caused damage to public property.
A First Information Report (FIR) was later lodged against 116 named and several unnamed persons. Mr. Khan was among the unidentified persons and was booked under various Sections of the IPC and Section 3/4 of Public Property (Prevention of Damage) Act and Section 7 Criminal Law Amendment Act. The FIR was lodged at Kotwali police station in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh.
Mr. Khan’s lawyer told the court that his name was not there in the FIR and being a politically active person, many cases were lodged against him.
“In the present case also there was a demonstration going on in which applicant had participated in a peaceful manner and there is no evidence that the applicant had in any manner caused disharmony or any damage to any person or public property. The applicant is in jail since March this year,” said the lawyer.
Opposing the bail, the additional government advocate said that in the present case, Mr. Khan was present during the demonstration but did not take any steps to restore calm.
“Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, perusing the record and also considering the nature of allegations, arguments advanced by the counsel for parties and without expressing any opinion on the merit of the case, the court finds it to be a fit case for granting bail,” said the order passed by justice Vivek Chaudhary.
