New Delhi, December 3: The Delhi High Court on Thursday allowed Jamia Millia Islamia University student Asif Iqbal Tanha, arrested in a Delhi violence case, to be kept in a guest house for appearing for his examination scheduled from December 4.
A bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri allowed Tanha to stay at a guest house situated at Lajpat Nagar, while hearing his interim bail petition enabling him to appear in the exams scheduled between December 4 and 7.
The bench directed that he be allowed to carry all necessary reading material and books and said it would be the responsibility of the jail superintendent that from the guest house, the accused be taken to the examination centre at JMI university at 8:30 am on December 4, 5 and 7 and brought back to the guest house after the exams. Delhi Riots: Take Legal Recourse if You Have Doubts and Questions About Violence Probe, Says Police.
He will be brought back to jail after the three exams are over, the bench said while also allowing Tanha to make a phone call to his counsel for 10 minutes once a day during his stay at the guest house.
The trial court had on November 26 granted custody parole to Tanha. Later, Tanha through his lawyer approached the High Delhi seeking that he should be granted interim bail and submitted that in custody parole the entire day will be wasted and he will not be able to study and sought interim bail for the purpose.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for Delhi Police, had opposed the interim bail plea and said the accused had been studying in jail and there was no complaint of lack of reading material in prison. A large number of prisoners study in jail, he added. Delhi Riots: Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav, Umar Khalid's Names in Chargesheet.
Raju, however, suggested that the accused can be put in a guest house near the exam centre for four days under security. Tanha, a student at Jamia Milia Islamia, is facing criminal proceedings under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged involvement in the northeast Delhi violence, which took place in February this year leading to the deaths of at least 53 people.