Ishrat Jahan moves fresh bail plea in UAPA riots case

new delhi: After months of having argued on the bail plea filed by former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan in the UAPA case against her in relation to the north-east Delhi riots last year, the prosecution has finally cornered the applicants to file their bail pleas under the "correct section" - a technicality the prosecution pointed out only weeks after arguing over the matter.

Significantly, the bail pleas had been earlier filed under Section 439 of the CrPC. In addition to Jahan, co-accused Umar Khalid and Khalid Saifi had also filed pleas under the same section. However, in Ishrat's plea, the prosecution argued that the pleas ought to be filed under Section 437 of the CrPC because the Court hearing the plea is a special court designated under UAPA Act and therefore exercises all powers that are before the Court of Magistrate within the rigors of Section 437 of CrPC.

And so now, Umar, Khalid, and Ishrat have all withdrawn their earlier pleas in the case with Ishrat having filed a fresh plea under Section 437. The court of Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat has now sought the prosecution's response to this and posted the matter for hearing today.

Ishrat's lawyers had earlier argued that the section is immaterial to the facts of the case and their arguments and that justice cannot be denied or hurdled in light of mere technicalities.