SYED KHALIQUE AHMED & MASiHUZZAMA ANSARI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 10
Former Congress Councillor from Jagatpuri Ishr at Jahan, who was released from Tihar Jail on Thursday on an interim bail for 10 days, refused to talk to media.
She was arrested on February 26 on allegations of assaulting the police personnel and inciting people not to leave the venue of anti-CAA protest in Khureji Khas, was, later on, also booked under dreaded Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with the Northeast Delhi riots.
She is the first accused facing charges under UAPA in the Delhi riots case who has been granted interim bail for 10 days.
The interim bail was granted to her for her marriage. Her ‘Nikah’ and marriage ceremony will be held today.
She is out on bail till June 19. The interim bail of 10 days was granted to her after the Additional Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmed submitted before the court that the fact of the marriage was verified. The court granted 10 days bail to her with a personal bond and surety bond of Rs. 1 lakh with two sureties each of the equal amount. The interim bail petition was filed by Ishrat Jahan’s advocates Lalit Valecha and S K Sharma, saying that her marriage was fixed in 2018 to take place on June 12.
However, Ishrat refused to talk to media and went straightway to her parent’s house.
Her elder sister Anwar Jahan told India Tomorrow team that Ishrat was released at 11.30 am from Tihar jail. “She came straightaway to our house. She does not want to talk to media at the moment. Give your contact number. She will call you if she intends to talk. But at the moment, she is not willing to talk to media”, said Anwar Jahan.
Anwar Jahan also refused to share any information where will the ‘Nikah’ ceremony take place or who is her would-be husband? She only said, “The groom lives in New Delhi’s Jamia area and is in construction business”.
Asked if Ishrat would restart her activities again after she gets regular bail, Anwar Jahan said, “The first priority now is to settle in life”.
Along with activist Khalid Saifi, Jahan was the most prominent face of the anti-CAA agitation at Khureji Khas in Northeast Delhi.
The charges levelled against her in the FIR are under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 353 (assault on public servant), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to public servant), 307 (attempt to murder), 109 (abetment), and 34 (common intention) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Arms Act.
Later on, charges under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) were also added on the allegations that she was also involved in Northeast Delhi riots.
While police claimed in the FIR that she was arrested from the spot where anti-CAA agitation was going on, her advocate Zakir Raza, appearing for Jahan on February 28 in the court, had claimed that she was arrested from her house owing to political vendetta as she belongs to the Congress party.
Raza had told the court that the anti-CAA protest was going on peacefully for 49 days and no incident of any violence had been reported all along for so many days.
According to the FIR, during a flag march on February 26, when police reached the spot of protest on hearing gunshots and asked people to disperse, Jahan instigated the people not to leave the police.
She was granted bail on March 21. However, she was arrested on the same day by the Delhi Police Special Cell in Northeast Delhi riots and charged under dreaded UAPA.
A total of 7 people were arrested in all, including activist Khalid Saifi and police claimed that one countrymade pistol and a live cartridge was recovered from one of the accused. Khalid Saifi is also under arrest for offences under UAPA.
(Syed Khalique Ahmed & Masihuzzama Ansari are indiatomorrow.net team)
