‘Justifiable grounds of arrest…, accused deliberately fled to remote location’: Court gives police custody of IYC workers held in Himachal

The standoff ended at 5.55 am on Thursday, and the Delhi Police team, which had been detained through the night at the Shoghi police post on the Shimla-Chandigarh highway, was allowed to proceed to Delhi with the three suspects – Siddharth Avdhoot from Madhya Pradesh, and Saurabh and Arbaaz Khan from Uttar Pradesh.

“…From the submissions…[of the police], the nature of the offences alleged, the specific roles attributed to the accused persons in the conspiracy with large number of participants involved, it appears that justifiable grounds of arrest have been disclosed by the State for the purpose of investigation…,” Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Mridul Gupta said while remanding the accused persons.

“…There is specific averment that the accused persons deliberately fled to a remote location in Himachal Pradesh immediately after the alleged incident and were apprehended from one Chansal Camp and Resort, Chir Gaon, Shimla… None of the accused persons are stated to be residents of the place from which they were apprehended,” CJM Gupta added.

“They (the suspects) were well aware that their colleagues had been arrested and they were in hiding,” Public Prosecutor Atul Kumar Srivastava submitted before the court, seeking five days’ custody of the accused.

Eight other individuals, all members and office bearers of the IYC, including the president of the organisation Uday Bhanu Chib, had been arrested earlier.

Police told the court that Siddharth had been involved in the designing and printing of pictures on the T-shirts worn by the protesters. Saurabh had created a WhatsApp group to allegedly plan the protest, and Arbaaz had gone inside Bharat Mandapam along with the other protesters, the police alleged.

“They are part of the core planning team,” counsel for Delhi Police argued. “Their custody is required to identify others [in the conspiracy] and senior functionaries. They have to identify the printing press and will be confronted with other accused persons,” he said.

Counsel for defence Roopesh Singh Bhadauria described the police action against the three suspects as a “witch hunt”.

“Everything is documented… There is CCTV footage that is already making the rounds. Siddharth was not there [at the protest]. This is just a witch hunt,” he told the court. “They were protesting… The T-shirts have been recovered,” he said.

“There are no fresh grounds of arrest,” the defence counsel submitted. “There are no bodily crimes; it was a peaceful protest, everything has been procured… No police official was hurt there,” he said. “It is political targeting of the youth wing of a major opposition party… This is just trying to make an example for other parties as well,” he said.

“It is a matter of grave concern that no recovery whatsoever has been effected… Shockingly, a bare perusal of the FIR reveals the mechanical reproduction of the very same phrase “Tukde-Tukde” that was infamously invoked in the JNU controversy. This raises serious questions about the independence and bona fides of the investigation,” Bhadauria submitted.

The court also extended the police remand by three days of two other accused, Ajay Kumar and Raja Gujar, arrested earlier and produced in court on Thursday on completion of their three-day police custody.