NEW DELHI: Delhi's Patiala House Court on Wednesday reserved its order on the bail pleas of three individuals arrested after a protest at India Gate, where the police allege anti-national slogans were raised and pepper spray was used against personnel. The bail petitions were filed by Ilakiya, Tanya Shrivastav, and Kajal, with Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Aridaman Singh Cheema set to pronounce the order on Monday. The arrests were made following an FIR lodged at the Kartavya Path Police Station.
On Tuesday, the same court had reserved its order on the bail applications of Shreshth Mukund, Prakash Kumar Gupta, Vishnu Tiwari, Sameer Fayis, Ahaan Arun Gupta, and others; decisions on those pleas will be delivered on Thursday.
During Wednesday's arguments, advocate Nijam Pasha, appearing for the accused students, emphasized that all of them were young and had upcoming examinations. He argued that the allegations relied on old material, noting that the police had cited Ilakiya's presence at a Hyderabad event 10 months earlier, a video of which had long been available online. He questioned why she should now be kept in custody because of it. When the court asked whether the defence was admitting her participation in that programme, Pasha clarified that he was accepting the allegations only hypothetically for argument's sake and was neither admitting nor denying them at this stage. He maintained that the students were protesting against rising pollution levels in Delhi.
The police, however, opposed bail, asserting that Ilakiya was an active member of the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch and had participated in an RSU programme in Hyderabad. The Public Prosecutor said the investigation was in its early stages and that a recently found video link needed scrutiny. Questioning the defence's pollution-protest narrative, the prosecutor asked why the name of Maoist leader Madvi Hidma appeared on a poster if the demonstration's purpose was environmental. (ANI)
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