New Delhi [India]: A Delhi Court on Wednesday granted bail to Supreme Court advocate Ashwani Upadhyay, who was arrested in connection with inflammatory sloganeering near Jantar Mantar in the national capital. Metropolitan Magistrate Udbhav Kumar Jain granted bail to Upadhyay asking him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with one surety of the like amount. “As far as the offence under section 153A Indian Penal Code (IPC) is concerned except for mere assertion, there is nothing on record to show that the alleged hate speech to promote enmity between different groups was done in the presence or at the behest of the applicant/accused,” the Court said. Ashwani Dubey and Alakh Alok Srivastav were among other counsels, who appeared for Ashwini Upadhyay. The Court noted that during the course of the hearing, it has inquired from public prosecutor whether Upadhyay was present when slogans were made. “…and so far, there is nothing against the accused in the alleged video. It is not the case where there chances that applicant/accused will abscond. Conspiracy is no doubt hatched behind closed doors and that the investigation in the present matter is at nascent stage that however, does not imply that liberty of a citizen be curtailed on mere assertions and apprehension,” the Court said. The Delhi Court imposed various conditions that the accused shall continue to cooperate with the ongoing investigations and shall join the investigation as and when summoned by the police, shall not leave the country without the permission of the court and shall scrupulously appear at each and every stage of the proceedings before concerned Court so as not to cause any obstruction or delay to its progress. Senior Advocates Vikas Singh, Sidharth Luthra and Pradeep Rai and Gopal Shankar Narayan, appeared for Ashwini Upadhyay. The advocates said that it was a blatant abuse of power by the Police, which cannot apprehend anyone indiscriminately. It is submitted that it is an admitted fact that the applicant/accused Upadhyay was present on the spot in the morning and not at the time of alleged incident relating to hate speech committed under section 153A IPC, the lawyers said. The lawyers said that the accused is not denying that he was not present at the gathering however, he was not present on the spot at the time of commission of alleged hate speech. Senior Advocate submitted that accused has credible standing and he is a reputed member of the Bar and he is not going to abscond. Delhi Police has vehemently opposed the bail application on the ground that release of applicant/accused will be prejudicial in maintaining public tranquility and will create further serious law and order situation and there are chances that the accused will create communal disharmony. Upadhyay was arrested on Tuesday after police had summoned and questioned all the accused in the matter. On August 9, a First Information Report (FIR) had been filed against an unknown group of people in connection with the alleged “raising inciting slogans” at Jantar Mantar. It was alleged by police that Ashwini Upadhyay had called on a march “Colonial Laws and Make Uniform Laws” on Sunday where the alleged “objectionable slogans” were raised. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Delhi, Deepak Yadav had said: “People who had gathered at Jantar Mantar had no permission. It has come to our due notice that some people raised inciting and objectionable slogans as well. We have also received a video and have registered FIR in the case.” “We are carrying out further investigation into the matter. Necessary action will be taken at the earliest,” added the DCP. Delhi Police senior official earlier told ANI that they are trying to ascertain the authenticity of the video. “After verifying the video strict legal action will be taken against those individuals who have done such act,” said the official. Ashwini Upadhyay, later issued a video on Monday on his Twitter account stating that the purported video on the basis of which an FIR has been lodged has been made to defame him. “I have filed a complaint regarding the viral video to the Delhi police and asked them to investigate the matter. If the video is real, the people seen in the video must be arrested,” Upadhyay said in the video. He said, “#UniteIndiaMovement was launched to repeal Colonial Laws and Make Uniform Laws Programme, it was over at 12:15 pm. The purported video was tweeted in the evening by some miscreants to malign and defame this noble cause.” “Whether the video is real or fake, it will be known after investigation but one thing is certain that it has been made to defame me,” Upadhyay said in his tweet on Monday.
