This is an archive article published on March 20, 2016
DU professor Geelani gets bail: ‘Keeping him in Tihar has no fruitful purpose’
Granting conditional bail to Geelani, special judge Deepak Garg said “there is no allegation of the state that there is any apprehension of the accused fleeing from justice”.
Former Delhi University Professor SAR Geelani. (Source: ANI/File)
Stating that “no fruitful purpose would be served” by keeping S A R Geelani in Tihar jail, a Delhi sessions court Saturday granted bail to the Delhi University associate professor in a sedition case filed against him over a meeting to mark three years of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
Granting conditional bail to Geelani, special judge Deepak Garg said “there is no allegation of the state that there is any apprehension of the accused fleeing from justice”.
“Accused in custody since February 16, 2016. Admittedly, he is not required for further investigation in any manner. The completion of investigation is going to take time. In these circumstances of the case, in my view, no fruitful purpose would be served by keeping the accused in judicial custody pending further investigation.”
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Geelani has been told not to leave “the jurisdiction of Delhi without permission of court”, that he should surrender his passport, and furnish a bail bond of Rs 50,000.
“Accused shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade them from disclosing such facts to the court or to any other authority,” special judge Garg said.
He said the “intention of creating public disorder” by an accused arrested under sedition can be seen by the court “only during trial”. He said “no discussion is required” on the argument of defence that ingredients of sedition under section 124 A IPC are not fulfilled in the case.
He, however, agreed the interpretation of the landmark judgement by the Supreme Court on sedition, observing “it is clear that criticism of public measures or comment on government action, however strongly worded, would be within reasonable limits and would be consistent with fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression”.
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“In the present case, whether the words written or spoken, as alleged in the statement of the witnesses of the prosecution had the pernicious tendency or intention of creating public disorder or disturbance of law and order can be seen by the court well, during trial,” the judge said.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
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Former Delhi University Professor SAR Geelani. (Source: ANI/File)
