Clashes at BJP headquarters: Court grants bail to 14 AAP workers

New Delhi: Fourteen Aam Aadmi Party workers  who were arrested in connection with clashes with BJP  supporters at the latter's national headquarters here were  on Thursday granted bail by a Delhi court.   Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain granted relief to the  AAP workers after they were produced before him by Delhi  Police, who could not answer in the affirmative about any  pendency of criminal cases against them.  

The magistrate observed that the investigating officer  (IO) had only sought to send the accused to judicial custody  and did not seek their custodial interrogation.   "In the course of arguments on the bail applications, IO  has failed to disclose pendency of any other criminal cases  against the accused persons.

Moreover, no custodial  interrogation was sought... and the only prayer was for  keeping the accused persons in judicial custody.   "Keeping in view the facts of the case, nature of offences  and undertaking given on behalf of accused persons, the  application for bail is allowed," the court said.   The 14 AAP workers were given bail against a personal bond  of Rs 15,000 "with one surety of like amount each with  directions that (they) shall join the investigation and not  try to tamper with the evidence".  

The AAP workers were booked for offences like rioting,  assaulting or obstructing public servants when suppressing  riots and deterring them from discharging their duties,  causing them hurt (under the IPC), and mischief causing damage  to public property under the Prevention of Destruction of  Public Property Act.   Police have named AAP leaders Ashutosh and Shazia Ilmi in  their FIR, but the duo were not arrested.  

Police said that apart from Ashutosh and Ilmi, AAP leaders  like Akhilesh Tripathi, Jarnail Singh, Jagdish Singh, Surender  Singh (all MLAs) and Professor Anand Kumar gave inflammatory  statements to instigate people to vandalise the BJP office. 

AAP workers had on Wednesday staged a demonstration outside  the BJP headquarters and allegedly attacked the office with  bricks, hours after their party leader Arvind Kejriwal was  detained briefly in Gujarat.   Seeking bail for AAP workers, advocate Prashant Bhushan  argued before court that 33 persons were detained last night  of which 18 were named in the FIR. Out of these latter, 14  were arrested while the rest were allowed to go.   He argued that police had not arrested any BJP supporters  nor named them as accused.   He said that 28 people, including 13 AAP activists and 10  BJP supporters, were injured in the clashes.  

AAP supporters have accused Delhi Police of being biased  against them.   The court granted bail to Pawan Kumar Pandey, Akbar,  Vijender Singh, Aditya Rai, Abhinav Rai, Bandeep Dutta,  Santosh Kumar, Sant Prakash, advocate Manoj Dhirian, Paramjeet  Singh, Suresh Chandra, Satbir Singh, Sudhit Dixit and Parath  Mandal.  

Bhushan further alleged in court that AAP workers were  beaten up by BJP supporters, but none of them were booked for  the offence.   Stating before the judge that bail was the rule, advocate  Somnath Bharti, who was also representing some of the accused,  said AAP members should be released as they have been  implicated falsely in the case.   The accused persons were peacefully protesting near the  BJP office along with other AAP volunteers, he contended.   "The protest was peaceful until some BJP workers started  throwing stones and chairs at AAP workers," Bharti argued.   The court then asked him the reason behind AAP workers  going to the BJP office and said, "There is a specific place  for demonstrations, so they should not have gone there."   Police maintained that the AAP workers had resorted to a  violent protest in front of the BJP office.   "Despite a place having been earmarked for protests and  peaceful demonstrations, the accused persons along with other  party members marched to the BJP office and indulged in  violation of prohibitory orders," police said.