Around 12 of the accused in the Bengaluru violence case will be released on execution of a personal bond for Rs 2 lakh along with two sureties of the same amount. The move comes after the Karnataka High Court granted default bail to 115 accused in the Bengaluru violence case, after noting that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) taking additional days for the investigation without notifying the accused was legally unsustainable.
Massive protests and violence had erupted on 11 August 2020, after angry Muslim mobs incensed over a Facebook post insulting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and the lack of police complicity in filing an FIR, resorted to arson. The incident resulted in the death of four young Muslim men in police firing. The derogatory post was posted on Facebook by Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy’s nephew.
Over 470 accused were arrested in the case. Families of the accused have alleged that those arrested did not partake in the violence. Reports also suggested that violence escalated due to delayed response by the police in registering an FIR against the MLA’s nephew.
HC Order Benefits 21 Accused
“When the petition was filed, it was filed for 115 accused. The charge sheet, however, was filed after the petition. After filing the charge sheet, UAPA charges against most of them were dropped,” Advocate Mohammed Tahir told The Cognate.
Out of the 115, 49 accused were charged under the draconian act. “Out of 49, around 10 are absconding, around 18 were arrested in December,” he said, adding that the default bail would benefit the remaining 21 accused.
“Among the 21, those who filed a petition and applied for default bail are around 12, they will be released. For the remaining, I have filed another writ petition,” he said.
Around 120 accused remain in prison for the Bengaluru violence case. Around 27 among them are under UAPA, while others are charged with various sections of the IPC for arson and damage to public property.
Default Bail
The high court set aside a special court’s order giving the NIA an additional 90 days for completing the investigation. The court said such an extension of time without the accused being notified is legally unsustainable.
Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the order while allowing petitions filed by Muzamil Pasha and 114 others who were arrested on August 12, 2020.
After 90 days had gone by in the investigation, the NIA filed an application for an extension of time to file a final report on November 3, 2020, and this was allowed by the NIA special court on the same day. The accused then filed an application for default bail on November 11, which came to be rejected.
The accused persons then approached the High Court.
After perusing the NIA order, the High Court noted that neither the accused persons nor the advocates representing them were present before the trial court on the said date. “The filing of such an application by the prosecution was not at all notified either to the accused or to their Advocates,” the Court pointed out.
With these observations, the Court proceeded to grant default bail to all the accused persons and set aside the NIA order.
Related
Rushda Fathima Khan is the Staff Reporter for The Cognate.
