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The Supreme Court on Tuesday, after a brief hearing, said it would hear on January 22 the plea of AIMIM candidate and Delhi riots accused Tahir Hussain, seeking interim bail for campaigning ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls.
A bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ahsanuddin Amanullah asked the Delhi Police to come prepared with submissions on Hussain's plea. The bench asked why Hussain had been denied bail in a single case related to the Delhi riots when he had been granted bail in nine other similar cases. "In all other 9 cases where he faces the same allegations, he has been granted bail, so why not in this one?" asked the bench, addressing the Delhi Police. Senior advocate Sidharth Aggarwal, representing Hussain, told the bench that the main assailants in the case had been granted regular bail. Aggarwal informed that charges were framed against Hussain after three years of custody, and 115 witnesses had been cited by the prosecution, of which 22 had been examined. The bench asked Aggarwal why Hussain was pressing for interim bail instead of regular bail. "Why are you insisting on interim bail as if elections are the only thing left to be done in life?" the bench remarked. Counsel said Hussain's regular bail plea was pending before the Delhi High Court, but the Delhi Police had not even filed a counter-affidavit. Hussain, a former Aam Aadmi Party councillor, was granted custody parole by the Delhi High Court on January 14 for the purpose of filing his nomination from the Mustafabad constituency. He has challenged the Delhi High Court's order that denied him interim bail to campaign in the upcoming Delhi election. In the High Court, the Delhi Police opposed Hussain's plea for interim bail because of the gravity of the allegations, claiming he was the main perpetrator in the violence, which resulted in the deaths of several people. The High Court had noted that about 11 FIRs were registered against Hussain in connection with the riots, and he was in custody in a related money laundering case and UAPA case. Hussain was booked in the murder case of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 North-East Delhi riots. Violence broke out in North-East Delhi on February 24, 2020, leaving 53 dead and several injured. (ANI)
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