The Delhi high court has granted interim custody-bail to Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) student Asif Iqbal Tanha, arrested in a case related to the northeast Delhi riots last year, for two weeks to appear in his exams scheduled for June 15.
A bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani allowed Tanha to stay at a hotel for studying and appearing in his exams, noting that it is imperative for him to take his three remaining backlogs or compartment examinations to complete his BA (Hons) (Persian) programme.
The court said that Tanha would be released on interim custody- bail on the morning of June 13 and shall be brought back to prison by guards on the evening of June 26.
As agreed by the counsels for the state and Tanha, he will be staying at a hotel in Kalkaji under the custody of two prison guards deputed by the jail superintendent. Tanha has undertaken to bear all the expenses to be incurred there, including food and lodging.
“During the period of interim-custody bail, the applicant shall not invite to the said facility any visitors or guests, including family members, friends, classmates or any other person,” the bench said.
As the exam will be conducted online, the court asked Tanha to arrange for a laptop, a basic mobile phone and a dongle for internet connection through a pairokar (representative pursuing his case). The devices will be first checked by the police officer concerned before it is delivered to him.
The court also allowed Tanha to make a phone call to his family or counsel for 10 minutes a day during his stay at the hotel. It also directed him to not use the devices for any other purpose except studying and also not to erase or tamper with the browsing history on the laptop or SMSes and call records of phone.
“It is clarified that even before the commencement of interim custody-bail, the applicant is permitted to receive all books and reading/study material, as he may consider necessary, through the jail superintendent, after being checked as per usual procedures.
“During the period of interim custody-bail, the applicant shall be entitled to receive all books and reading/study material that he may require for his examinations, at the said facility, which would be delivered to him after being checked by the SHO, police station special cell… unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise, the SHO shall permit all such books etc,” the court.
It also noted that the books and reading material may be in Persian or Arabic and asked the authorities to not withhold them for that reason alone.
The court said Tanha shall not in any way misuse or abuse the guarded liberty granted to him and added that the period spent by him in interim custody-bail would be counted as a period undergone in prison as an undertrial.
In December last year, the high court had granted a similar relief to the accused by directing the jail authorities to take him to a guest house to enable him to study and appear in exams.
Tanha was arrested on May 19 last year in the case for allegedly being part of a premeditated conspiracy in the riots.
This story was first appeared on hindustantimes.com