As per the reports, the court slammed the state police for failing to file FIR within 90 days leading to orders allowing bail to 50 accused Islamists. As per the rules, the police are supposed to file a chargesheet in the case within 90 days of the incident. Despite evidence, the police did not file the charge sheet in the case even after 200 days. The accused persons submitted an application in the lower court seeking bail. The bail was earlier denied by the lower court given serious charges framed against the accused.
A total of 51 accused have been granted bail so far. One person was granted bail on the grounds of serious illness.
A total of 107 people, including several women were arrested in the case. The Banbhulpura violence where 5 persons lost lives was the first instance where internet was shut down in the city.
As per a detailed report by Jagran, accused Nabi Raza Khan, Akhtari Beg, and Abdul Lateef were already dead when the police included their names in the list of accused. The inclusion of deceased persons’ names, and the failure to submit the charge sheet for over 200 days was cited as major lapses on the part of the police.
Haldwani riots on February 8
Islamists resorted to stone pelting and arson in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani area on 8th February this year. The frenzied mob attacked authorities who went there to demolish a madrasa, which was built on illegally encroached govt land near the Banbhulpura police station.
3 main FIRs were registered in the case, the first by Haldwani municipality, the second by Banbhulpura police station and the third one by the SHO Mukhani Pramod Pathak. The investigations were carried out by CO Ramnagar, CO Bhawali and CO Lalkuan respectively.
The Islamists pelted stones at the policemen and Haldwani Municipal Corporation workers present there. Later, they surrounded the police station and went on to set fire to the vehicles stationed outside the Banbhulpura police station.
The mob also set a transformer on fire, resulting in a power outage in the area. Several journalists and administration officials were trapped inside the police station as a mob surrounded the Banbhulpura police station.
A division bench of senior judge Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari and Justice Pankaj Purohit had reserved the decision after completing the hearing on the special appeals filed by the accused against the lower court’s decision.
Gulzar, a resident of Banbhulpura, and 50 others implicated in the violence and arson case in the Banbhulpura area of Haldwani had submitted bail applications claiming that the police had not filed a chargesheet against them within 90 days after the incident. They did not provide a cogent rationale for extending the remand. Notably, the lower court prolonged the remand and denied the bail applications.
The accused claimed that the prolongation of the remand term violated Article 21 of the Constitution. The police cannot detain somebody without a justification, no matter how serious the allegations. The accused claimed that the charge sheet had not yet been produced, thus they should be freed on bond.
Meanwhile, following the violence in Haldwani, over 75 individuals were held and interrogated. Official complaints had been registered against 19 named and 5000 unknown individuals. Among the detained was Javed Siddiqui, sibling of Samajwadi Party’s Uttarakhand state in-charge Abdul Mateen Siddiqui. The Councillor of line number 16, Mehboob Alam, and line number 14, Zeeshan Parvez, a resident of Indira Nagar, had also been arrested.
Arshad Ayyub, a mining entrepreneur who lives in line number 12, and Aslam Chaudhary, who manages a diary, were also caught. Many women were also arrested in the case.