2022 Kanpur protests: Despite bail, four languish in jail for want of surety

One of the complaints was filed by Sub-Inspector Arif Raza, alleging that a crowd of 350 indulged in rioting and arson, resulting in injuries to people passing through the area after Friday prayers on June 3 last year.

Another complaint, by Police Inspector Nawab Ahmad, stated that a crowd of 500 people gathered at Nai Sadak area on June 3 and “indulged in rioting, arson and fired with illegal arms with an intention to kill”. The complaint named 36 people as accused.

A third case was lodged by Mukesh, a local resident, who alleged that thousands of people attacked a neighbourhood with stones, iron rods and bombs while chanting slogans of “Allahu Akbar”.The case mentioned “thousands of unidentified people” as accused.

A senior police officer said 61 people were arrested in the three cases. “Five people accused in the cases are absconding, and we are taking action against them as per law,” the officer said.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Kanpur DCP (Central) Pramod Kumar, who was part of the Special Investigative team (SIT) probing the three cases, said, “The chargesheet in the three cases have been filed. All the accused persons were arrested based on evidence.”

While the Allahabad High Court granted bail to several of those accused, including the four men, on different dates, the families of Naseem, Mehtab, Imran and Arshad could not submit sureties in the district court to secure their release. The Kanpur district court had set two sureties worth Rs 1 lakh in each of the three cases, totalling to Rs 6 lakh.

The four men who continue to be in jail are their families’ sole breadwinners. Their families said they had wiped out their financial resources on legal fees and were unable to produce the bail surety required to secure their release from jail.

A surety bond is given by a person, usually with influence or authority over the accused, as a guarantee that the accused will be present before the court. If the accused fails to appear, the guarantor forfeits the money.

Despair haunts Naseem’s family

At 5 pm on a hot evening in Kanpur’s Beconganj, Yasmin Ahmad, 35, returned home from work. A domestic help at six houses, Yasmin starts work at 8 am, leaving her four children with their grandmother, Zaigun Nisha.

A lot has changed for Yasmin since her husband Naseem went to jail. Naseem was granted bail six months ago, on November 2, but remains in jail. The family has already spent Rs 1.5 lakh applying for bail in the Allahabad High Court, after the plea was rejected by a local court. Now, the family has run out of resources to raise the bail bond.

Before his arrest, Naseem painted houses, earning Rs 200-300 daily. He was the only earning member in the family of five that included his four children. With Naseem in jail for more than a year and with mounting legal expenses, the family is neck-deep in debt.

The family’s two-room house behind Vivek Talkies in Kanpur city has walls with peeling plaster and a bed without a mattress. Their belongings are stuffed in plastic bags hanging pegs on the wall. A stove lies on the floor, near a small cylinder.

“You can see how we live. How can we arrange bonds worth Rs 6 lakh? We don’t have anything at all. None of our relatives or the people we know are rich enough to have such kind of money,” says Yasmin, who married Naseem 12 years ago.

Justice Suresh Kumar Gupta of the Allahabad High Court, while granting bail to Naseem in the final case on November 2 last year, noted that the alleged incident “is said to have been given effect to by a mob of thousands of unknown persons”. The court also took into account that Naseem had no criminal history.

Naseem’s family says he had nothing to do with the protest or violence and claims that he was falsely implicated. Naseem’s mother Zaigun Nisha, has lost hope of his release.

“We don’t think he will get released. Every time, we see him in court during the hearings, he says ‘Ammi, kuch kariye’ (Mother, please do something). I feel helpless, and I cry every time,” she says.

Mehtab’s family awaits a miracle

The family of Mehtab, 50, a resident of Talwa Mandi in the city, is “waiting for a miracle”. His wife Farida, 37, had sold their two-room pucca house in the slum for Rs 4 lakh to pay the legal fees required for Mehtab’s bail.

“We now live in a rented house and pay Rs 2,500 a month as rent. I work at people’s houses to sustain the family. What other work can an illiterate woman like me do? We have spent more than Rs 3 lakh on legal fees since he went to jail,” says Farida. The couple have two children, aged 8 and 5. Farida says they will soon have to move to a cheaper neighbourhood since the landlord is increasing their rent.

Before his arrest, Mehtab sold meat scraps that he bought from a butcher and earned approximately Rs 300 a day. “We just had enough to survive; now, we have nothing,” says Farida.

“My children keep asking me what wrong has their father done? I don’t know what to tell them,” she says.

Farida, however, maintains that Mehtab is innocent.

Mehtab’s lawyer, who didn’t want to be named, said that his client secured bail in October last year in all three cases from the Allahabad High Court. “Despite getting bail, he is in jail as the family has not been able to secure the required bail bonds,” said the lawyer.

Debt overwhelms Imran’s family

Around 2 km from Mehtab’s house, Munnawar Jahaan too has also lost hope that her son Imran, 40, will be released. She lives in Gora Kabristan, a slum where most residents work as scrap dealers.

Imran worked as a tailor – just like his father Nisar who died a month before the June 3 violence, following a prolonged illness and multiple strokes of paralysis. Imran’s sewing machine rests against the house’s blue walls, unused for over a year, ever since he went to jail.

Imran’s family has failed to arrange for sureties in the three cases he has been booked in.

“I have spent Rs 40,000 so far on legal fees. Some neighbours and affluent people we know helped us with the legal fees. We are now drowning in debt. Where will I find people who can give sureties to the court?” asks Jahaan, 72.

Arshad’s ailing father forced to work

Arshad, 32, who worked as a daily wager at a garment shop in Kanpur’s Readymade Market, too, is languishing in jail despite the Allahabad High Court granting him bail in February 2023 in the three cases he was booked in.

The family cannot find people who can give sureties worth Rs 6 lakh. “We asked around. We asked many people, but now, it seems futile. No one has cars or properties. Everyone we know is barely surviving,” Arshad’s mother Ashiya, 58, says.

Ashiya says she suffers from hypertension and that her husband Shameem, 64, has a lung infection and an ailment in one of his legs.

After Arshad’s arrest last year, the family moved to a cheaper house in Kanpur’s Shuklaganj area. Shameem has taken up a job as a guard and makes Rs 200 per day.

“He can barely walk. But what option do we have?,” said Ashiya, crying over the phone.