A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to six protesters arrested in connection with a protest against air pollution at the India Gate on Kartavya Path, where slogans were allegedly raised in support of slain Maoist commander Madvi Hidma.
The court, which was hearing the bail pleas of 12 accused, however, declined relief to four, while the order for one remains pending, and the plea of another has been adjourned to Saturday.
Judicial Magistrate Aridaman Singh Cheema granted bail to Mehul, Pritirani, Simran, Noi, Vageesha and Karina on a bond of Rs 15,000 each.
The court noted that all digital evidence, from CCTV footage to video clips of the protest to the mobile phone records of the accused, has been seized by police, and it is readily available to the investigating agency.
Nothing has been found against the accused protesters qua their membership in radical organisations related to Maoists, the court said.
It, however, added that reasonable conditions had to be imposed to address any concerns regarding the accused absconding or tampering with evidence.
The court granted them bail, saying, "No purpose shall be served by keeping the accused in judicial custody."
The court, however, rejected the bail pleas of Gurkirat Kaur, Ravjot Kaur, Ayisha Wafiya, and Abhinash Satyapati.
In one of the bail orders, the judge noted, "On a plain reading of the slogans raised by the accused, it is clear that at this juncture, the accused raised slogans in support of Hidma and is also allegedly a member of the Radical Student Union (RSU), which is a frontal organisation of Maoists that is banned."
The investigation into the identification of the other members related to the RSU is pending, he said.
The protest, which was supposed to be only against the rising air pollution in the capital, transformed into an agitation in support of Hidma and the accused person has been identified as a member of the RSU affiliated to Naxalites, the judge said.
As the conspiracy was hatched in secrecy, the role of more persons in the present case cannot be ruled out at this stage, he said.
Rejecting the bail pleas, the judge noted that releasing the accused at this stage could lead to them committing similar offences, alerting other yet-to-be-identified members or absconding.
The bail plea of another accused, Akshay E R, has been adjourned on account of pending arguments and will now be taken up on Saturday.
The bail order of Kranti is presently pending. Top Naxalite commander Madvi Hidma, who masterminded several attacks over the last two decades, his wife Raje, and four other Naxalites were killed by security forces during an encounter in Andhra Pradesh last month.
The protest took place at the India Gate on November 23, during which some agitators were accused of raising pro-Hodma slogans and using pepper spray on the police trying to contain them.
According to the police, 23 protesters were arrested in two separate cases lodged at the Parliament Street and Kartavya Path police stations.
Seventeen protesters were held in connection with a scuffle at the Parliament Street police station, while six were arrested in the pepper-spray case.
Fifteen of the 17 accused in the Parliament Street case were rearrested in the Kartavya Path case.
Of the 17, nine were granted bail on November 28 by a magistrate hearing the Parliament Street case, while the remaining eight secured bail on December 2.
Till date, of the 22 arrested in the Kartavya Path case, nine have been granted bail while the bail plea of one was rejected.
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