Delhi court grants first bail in Turkman Gate violence case
The court was hearing the bail plea of 25‑year‑old Md Ubedullah, who was accused of rioting, stone‑pelting and attempt to murder under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to a man accused of being involved in the violence near Faiz-e-Ilahi mosque near Turkman Gate in Central Delhi during a demolition drive by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) earlier this month. He is the first person to be granted bail in the case. This comes days after five of the 18 arrested accused were denied bail by the court.
The court was hearing the bail plea of 25‑year‑old Md Ubedullah, who was accused of rioting, stone‑pelting and attempt to murder under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023. “Ld. APP for the state has submitted that this accused was involved under Section 149 IPC/190 of BNS. It is noted that police custody of this accused is not required. It is submitted for the accused that the accused will cooperate during the investigation and will observe conditions granted for him,” said Additional Sessions Judge Joginder Prakash Nahar of Tis Hazari Court in his order on Tuesday.
The Judge added, “Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, the accused is held entitled to bail in this matter. Accordingly, the applicant/accused Md. Ubedullah is granted bail on personal bond of Rs.25,000/- with one surety in the like amount.”
Defence counsel A F Faizi and M K Malik had argued that the entire case against the accused was built on CCTV footage, which, they claimed, did not show any overt act by him. They submitted that no video of the accused nor any call detail records had come on record showing that he was in any manner involved in the offence. They further said that he was the only breadwinner in his family and caregiver to his paralysed father.
Last week, on January 14, five accused were denied relief. “The recordings were heard in open court, as per which, accused persons can be heard instigating…crowd near the Faiz-e-Elahi Masjid in order to stop the demolition. All the accused persons have been named in the FIR as duly identified…,” Judicial Magistrate First Class Sayesha Chadha said during the hearing.
She had added, “The relentless pelting of stones, damage to government property and the injury sustained by the police officials, while the discharge of their official duties is indeed not a simpliciter case of assault but an attack on the administration.”
Earlier this month, the MCD had carried out a demolition drive to remove encroachments near the mosque hours after the Delhi High Court declined a plea for an interim stay on such action.
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Violence erupted soon as 30-35 people gathered in the area, raised slogans and threw stones. Five policemen were injured in the incident. A total of 18 arrests have been made in the case so far. Of the 18, the court has refused to give bail to five accused.
The bulldozers targeted several structures, including a baaraat ghar and a dispensary lying outside a 0.195-acre patch of land on which the mosque and a dargah stand. Both the mosque and the dargah remained untouched during the demolitions.
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
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