Haldwani violence: Bail granted to 50 accused by Uttarakhand HC

Dehradun: The Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday granted "default bail" to 50 individuals charged in relation to the February violence in Haldwani, criticising the "sluggish" pace of the inquiry and pointing out that the chargesheet was not presented within the allotted 90 days.

The lower court's ruling to give the police more time to file the chargesheet was also overturned by a division bench made up of Justices Manoj Kumar Tiwari and Pankaj Purohit.

The CrPC states that since the violence occurred on February 8, the chargesheet had to have been submitted within ninety days.

Following an administration drive that resulted in the demolition of a madrasa and a mosque in Banbhoolpura, violence broke out in Nainital. According to district authorities, both buildings were located on Nazool land, which is government land that isn't specifically included in tax records.

The local police station was surrounded by a crowd, cars were set on fire, and Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami had issued orders to shoot on sight. At least five people lost their lives and numerous others—including police officers—were hurt. Five ladies were among the more than ninety people the police detained. The wife of alleged mastermind Abdul Malik, Safia Malik, was granted bail by the Uttarakhand High Court in July.

The appellants have been in judicial detention since February 13 and the 90-day deadline has expired, the High Court stated in its ruling after reviewing the case records.

The High Court also mentioned that they “did not notice promptitude in the investigation; rather the investigation was sluggish, and for such a sluggish investigation, the appellants cannot be made to suffer”, Indian Express reported.

“The manner in which investigation proceeded clearly reveals the carelessness on the part of the investigating officer as to how slow the investigation proceeded with, that too in such a situation where the appellants were languishing in judicial custody. In three months’ time, statements of only eight official witnesses and four public witnesses were recorded. The height of the sluggish investigation is that in the first month, only two public witnesses and one official witness were examined,” said the court.

“The manner in which the investigation proceeded also speaks volumes when we see that the arms recovered on February 13 were sent to the FSL only on April 1 after an inordinate and unexplained delay of 45 days and further the articles seized on April 16 were sent only on May 18 after the period of 90 days was over. Moreover, the reason which has been cited by the investigating officer does not impress us that for the investigation yet to be completed, the custody of appellant was at all required,” the court said.

High Court attorney Ahrar Baig, who represented a family in a case against the demolition that sparked the violence, spoke with The Indian Express, and said, “There was a delay in filing the chargesheet as the police took more than 90 days. The state government said that they needed extra time because elections hindered the process. A lower court twice extended the time of the investigation. This was challenged in the High Court, which granted bail to the accused on Wednesday. The bail was not on merit, but because it was within the right of the accused.”