Pregnancy no ground for leniency: Cops in HC

Pregnancy no ground for leniency: Cops in HC

Abhinav.Garg@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: 23.06.2020

Opposing any relief to jailed Jamia student Safoora Zargar, Delhi Police on Monday told Delhi high court that she was not the only pregnant accused and couldn’t be given preferential treatment.

In a status report filed in the court, police maintained that a clear case has been made out against Zargar and she was not entitled to bail for the grave offences, which “were meticulously and surreptitiously planned and executed by her.”

Zargar was arrested under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi during protests against Citizenship Amendment Act. She has raised her 23 weeks pregnancy as one of the grounds to seek bail.

“So far as grounds of pregnancy raised by the applicant to seek bail is concerned, it is respectfully submitted that it is not even the case of the petition that she is not being granted proper care during the custody,” police said, adding that till date, as many as 39 deliveries have taken place in Delhi prisons in the past 10 years.

“There is no exception carved out for pregnant inmate, who is accused of such heinous crime, to be released on bail merely because of their pregnancy,” Delhi Police said, arguing that “the very fact of rearing of life ought to have been a check on the activities which had a potential to cause, and did in fact cause, large-scale destruction of life and property.”

The police’s report filed through advocates Amit Mahajan and Rajat Nair claimed there was strong, cogent, reliable and sufficient material available to prove the direct involvement of Zargar, MPhil student of Jamia Millia Islamia.

Zargar, a Jamia coordination committee member, who was arrested by Special Cell on April 10, had challenged the June 4 order of trial court, which denied her bail, in high court.

The report, filed through DCP Special Cell, informed the high court that WhatsApp chats, statements of witnesses and co-accused clearly implicated Zargar as being the co-conspirator in the crime of instigating large-scale disruption and riots, not only in Delhi, but also in other parts of the country.

Police claimed that the protests were organised following the ‘Shaheen Bagh chakkajam’ model and 21 protest sites were converted to chakka jam resulting in heightened tension and riots in parts of the capital.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta and additional solicitor general Aman Lekhi urged Justice Rajiv Shakdher to grant them a day’s time to seek instructions on the issue, saying it will be in the “larger interest” if they were given indulgence. The court, which conducted the hearing through videoconferencing, allowed the request after Zargar’s counsel said she had no objection and listed the matter for Tuesday.

DELHI POLICE SAYS

There is no exception for pregnant inmate, who is accused of such heinous crime, to be released on bail merely because of their pregnancy