NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to stay criminal proceedings in the 2019 Jamia violence case in which a trial court has ordered framing of charges against activist Sharjeel Imam.
Justice Sanjeev Narula also issued notice and sought response of Delhi Police on Imam’s plea challenging the trial court’s March 7 order to frame charges against him in the case.
“I am not staying any order right now. You (police) file the reply and we will hear the matter,” the judge said.
The court then posted the matter on April 24.
Imam has challenged the trial court’s March 7 order in which it said he was not only an instigator but also one of the “kingpins of a larger conspiracy to incite violence” and ordered framing of charges against him.
“The impugned order has been passed without any due application of mind and appreciation of the evidence on record and is ex facie illegal...it fails to record any finding in regard the essential ingredients of the offence of 153A (promoting enmity between groups) of IPC being met prima-facie, contradicts its own findings, wrongly reads the speech in question,” Imam’s revision
petition said.
The trial court’s order, the plea said, ignored the most relevant parts and failed to even record a single piece of evidence connecting the petitioner’s speech dated December 13, 2019 to the violence which took place on December 15, 2019.
The plea alleged the trial court’s order was “completely illegal” for want of evidence.
“The impugned charges have been ordered to be framed completely mechanically in absence of any admissible piece of evidence against the petitioner,” the plea added.
The trial court, in its order, observed that Imam’s speech of December 13, 2019 near Jamia Millia Islamia University was “venomous” and “pitted one religion against another” aside from being “indeed a hate speech”.
The court was hearing the case against Imam and others against whom a case was registered at the New Friends Colony Police Station under various provisions of the IPC, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act (PDPP) and Arms Act. Delhi Police’s Crime Branch is investigating the matter. The trial court ordered charges against Anal Hussain, Anwar, Yunus, and Jumman under IPC and PDPP Act provisions, citing police testimony and mobile records linking them to the mob during the 2019–2020 protests at Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh.