Courts to ensure law does not become tool for targeted harassment: Delhi HC

Bail is the rule and jail is the exception, and Courts must exercise their jurisdiction to uphold the tenets of personal liberty, subject to rightful regulation of the same by validly enacted legislation, said Delhi High Court.

Observation of Justice Subramonium Prasad came on Tuesday while granting bail to two accused in a murder case of an elderly woman, Akbari Begum in connection with the February 2020 Northeast Delhi Violence case.

The Supreme Court has time and again held that Courts need to be alive to both ends of the spectrum, that the duty of the Courts to ensure proper enforcement of criminal law, and the duty of the Courts to ensure that the law does not become a tool for targeted harassment, said Delhi High Court.

However, Court has denied bail to one accused in the present case and said that the footage of the petitioner Vishal Singh at the scene of the crime is quite egregious, and is therefore sufficient to keep him in custody. Furthermore, He does not satisfy the ingredients to claim bail on grounds of parity with the other co-accused who have been enlarged on bail.

The Bench of Justice Subramoniam Prasad granted bail to Arun Kumar and Ravi Kumar while denying the same to Vishal Singh in the case registered at Bhajanpura police station, in the Northeast district of the national capital.

Akbari, a resident of the Bhajanpura area was inside her house when a mob allegedly set it on fire, thus killing her. According to Delhi Police, during the incident, while other members of her family climbed up to the rooftop to save themselves Akbari Begum could not leave her second-floor room and climb up using the ladder due to her age. She died of suffocation.

FIR was registered under Section 302, 307, 396, 436, 147, 148 and 149 of IPC. Statements of police personnel, eyewitnesses and those who helped in dousing the fire were recorded to identify all those who were part of the rioting mob that set the house afire, said related chargesheet.

Those who have been arrested and charge-sheeted in the case include Arun Kumar, Varun Kumar, Vishal Singh, Ravi Kumar, Prakash Chand and Suraj.

At least 53 people died while around 200 people sustained serious injuries in the violence that raged for three days in Northeast Delhi in February 2020. (ANI)