POINTERS OF THE DEVELOPMENT
Student activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita walked out of Tihar prison on Thursday, hours after a court here ordered their immediate release in the northeast Delhi riots “conspiracy” case. The order came two days after the Delhi High Court granted bail to Narwal, Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha, who were arrested in May last year under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Student activists Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Asif Iqbal Tanha released from prison on bail. The appellant, Devangana Kalita, is a student pursuing the M.Phil.- Ph.d. Programme in the Department of Women’s Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, having completed her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in English from Miranda House College, Delhi University and Master of Arts degree in Gender & Development at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom.
The essential case alleged by the State against the Devangana is that, as part of a women’s rights group called Pinjra Tod (which may loosely be translated as ‘break-free from the cage’, namely from societal shackles), and other activistic groups called the Delhi Protests Support Group (‘DPSG’, for short), the Jamia Coordination Committee (‘JCC’, for short), Warriors, and ‘Auraton ka Inquilab’, the participated in what is described by the State as a ‘larger conspiracy’, to commit certain offences that are the subject matter of the subject FIR, which led to violence and rioting in the North-East Delhi between 22.02.2020 and 26.02.2020.
These allegations arise from protests, in which the appellant is alleged to have participated, against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 passed by Parliament and the exercise undertaken by the Central Government to create a database of citizens called the National Register of Citizens and the gravamen of the allegation is that as part of such protests, the appellant along with co-conspirators instigated the local population in certain Muslim dominated areas of Delhi, particularly women, and incited in their feelings of persecution, which subsequently led to violence and rioting.
Due notice is also taken of the fact that the appellant was not arrested in the subject FIR for nearly 03 months after the date of its registration. In the circumstances, we see no reason, basis or justification to detain the appellant in judicial custody in the subject FIR any longer.
Image curtsey: She the People
