New Delhi: Even after more than 40 hours of the Delhi High Court granting bail to student activists Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha in the UAPA case related to the Delhi riots, Narwal and Kalita remained in jail throughout Wednesday with no sign of release at least until 11 am today (Thursday) as a local court, in unusually rare proceedings, reserved the order for their immediate release, citing a "heavy board of bail applications" listed before it.
The reason, it appeared, was that the Delhi Police had filed an application in the court, seeking anywhere between three to six days' time to complete the verification of addresses and sureties of the accused — a process that is usually a formality after grant of bail and takes not more than a few hours.
In their application, the Delhi Police said they could not finish the verification due to several complications and a "paucity of time".
The police stated that all the three had permanent addresses outside Delhi, such as Tanha originally hailed from Jharkhand, Kalita from Assam and Narwal from Rohtak in Haryana, hence, for Tanha and Kalita, police sought time till June 21 to verify their addresses and then file a report by June 22. Meanwhile, for Narwal, police sought time till June 18 to verify her address and file a report by June 19.
Police have claimed that for conducting the verification of the surety, a mere phone number was not sufficient and a physical verification was imperative.
Further, police also sought directions to UIDAI to verify the Aadhaar card details of the sureties which could not be done due to paucity of time and it was claimed that a report would be filed in this regard at the earliest.
While Kalita and Narwal are still in jail, Asif Tanha is in a hotel on interim bail for his exams. The HC's bail supersedes this order and once finished with formalities, he can go home from the hotel.
During the hearing before Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Bedi, the court questioned police as to why it is taking so much time to conduct surety and address verification for releasing the student activists.
Advocate Adit Pujari, for Narwal and Kalita, argued that there was no justification for the delay in verification of surety and submitted that there were no grounds for delaying and that the sureties were already visited by the police.
"The police says that Asif, Natasha and Devangana are permanent residents of places outside Delhi. Outstation permanent address verification is pending, the Delhi address is verified," Pujari argued.
On this, the court asked the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case, "If Delhi address is verified then what else is required?...What is the reason for delay?"
Pujari submitted: "We are on the 24th hour. There is no justification for delay. The Delhi Police instead of preparing a surety verification report has filed an SLP in Supreme Court… all the sureties are professors of government universities and public servants, if for such sureties the Delhi Police is unable to conduct verification, this is strange."
Advocate Sowjhanya Shankaran, for Tanha, told the court that the prosecution is simply trying to extend the time period which is "wholly impermissible". "The High Court judgment set out a 24-hour limit. Now it's 3:30 pm and the police is filing applications... there is no question of verification from the UIDAI," she argued.
Advocate Pujari said the accused are being kept in "illegal custody" as 24 hours have passed since the High Court judgment.
Additional DCP (Special Cell) Alok Kumar stated that the police didn't verify addresses and sureties as they "need to verify the Aadhaar and check with neighbours" and hence it was "taking time".
Advocate Pujari, however, took exception and stated that just because the accused stay on rent in Delhi and their parents own a house elsewhere doesn't mean that Delhi is not their permanent address. "An adult is entitled to stay on rent in Delhi separate from parents," he argued.
ASJ Bedi was not pleased with the prosecution's contention and stated that the court doesn't see any explanation for seeking more time.
Following this, advocates Pujari and Shankaran recorded statements on behalf of Narwal and Kalita, and Tanha respectively, that they will not leave the capital pending the verification process. Thereafter, the court reserved orders on the matter which will now be delivered on Thursday (today).
Significantly, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawler also tweeted about the continued incarceration of Kalita and Narwal, calling it "deeply concerning".