A Delhi Court on Saturday dismissed the bail plea of former Congress MLA Asif Mohd. Khan, who was recently arrested for misbehaving with Delhi Police in the Shaheen Bagh area, saying “if law enforcers are abused and the accused are released on bail, it will send wrong signal to society”.
While dismissing the bail plea, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sonu Agnihotri of the Saket Court observed, “…To my mind, in these circumstances, the bail application of accused Asif Mohammad Khan does not deserve to be allowed and is accordingly dismissed”.
Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Khan, contended that a false case was filed against him to keep him in custody because he raised social issues against police, and the police are adamant about keeping him in custody for one reason or another.
It was argued that no offence under Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is made out against Khan as it requires assault or the use of criminal force, which is not present in the facts and circumstances of this case. He also contended that the remaining offences under Section 186 and 341 IPC, are bailable and claimed that Khan had been detained in the present case for more than three weeks.
Furthermore, he submitted that no compliance of Section 41 and 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was done by police and that the data of pending cases filed by the investigating officer (IO) in reply to Khan’s bail application is incorrect, and that only three cases are currently pending against him, while in the rest he has either been acquitted or discharged.
On the contrary, Additional Public Prosecutor Nischal Singh vehemently opposed the grant of bail and submitted that Khan has been consistent in attacking government officials on duty and there are three recent cases, including the present one, related to obstruction of public servants in discharge of their official duties are pending. He contended that an attack on law enforcers is a depreciable act.
It was argued that Khan stopped complainant Dharampal on his way out of the scene of the crime without his consent, uttered objectionable words, attempted to incite the public at large, and used criminal force against him squarely, bringing his actions within the purview of Section 353 IPC, which is a non-bailable offence. He also argued that Section 41 (1)(e) CrPC allows for the arrest of a person without a warrant or order from a Magistrate, and thus the accused is not protected under Section 41A CrPC.
Furthermore, he contended that Khan was recently released on bail, but he misused his freedom to commit another crime, hence he should not be granted bail.
During the arguments, Khan’s video was played before the court. On perusal of the videos, the court stated that his behavior appears to show that he has “no regard for the law” and “considers himself above the law”.
“The manner in which he is seen speaking with police officials is depreciable. Whatever cause may be available to a person against Government Officials, he is not expected to take law unto in his own hands and misbehave and mishandle Government Officials who are discharging their official duties,” the court said.
The court further said, “I am of the view that as per averments in FIR, accused stopped the way of complainant Ct. Dharampal while he was going from a place of occurrence without his consent, threatened him, used objectionable words, and tried to incite public at large and hence can be said to have used criminal force against complainant squarely bringing act of accused within purview of Section 353 IPC”.
The court noted that the Delhi Police had filed the wrong involvement or non-updated involvements reports of Khan. Accordingly, the court while dismissing the bail plea directed, “Issue show cause notice to IO SI Ashish Sharma and SHO PS Shaheen Bagh U/sec 177 IPC to show cause as to why they should not be convicted and punished for furnishing false information to this court regarding previous involvement of accused through DCP, South-East for 10.02.2023.”
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