Delhi Court allows riots accused Safoora Zargar to travel, directs her to drop-a-pin on Google maps for IO to verify location

Read Order: State of NCT of Delhi v. Tahir Hussain & ors. 

LE Staff

New Delhi, July 14, 2021: A Delhi Court has allowed the application of Jamia Millia Islamia student Safoora Zargar, who is out on bail in a case related to the communal violence that broke out in the national capital last year, to visit her home town at Kishtwar, Kashmir from July 16 onwards for a period of one month.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat ordered Zargar to “drop-a-pin on Google maps”, so that the Investigating Officer can verify her presence and location. 

Zargar was arrested by the Delhi Police in 2020 on the allegation that she delivered inflammatory speeches, leading to violence and rioting in North East Delhi in February last year. Her bail was initially rejected by the Sessions Court which had concluded that there was a prima facie case against Zargar, in view of the statutory embargo u/s 43D (5) of the UAPA.

The present court was approached by Zargar for seeking permission to visit her hometown on the ground that she delivered her child on October 12, 2020, and that she and her family wished to perform one of the compulsory religious ceremonies known as Aqiqah on the occasion of Eid-ul-Milad. 

The court was urged that as the hometown of both Zargar and her husband happened to be Kishtwar in Kashmir, the ceremony had to be performed there. 

Pleading that the applicant has attended all previous hearings and that she also undertakes to attend all future hearings whether physical or virtual as and when notified, the counsel for the Applicant urged that she was not a flight risk and therefore should be allowed to visit and stay in Kishtwar. 

Finding that neither the present application was opposed by the Prosecution nor there was any violation of bail conditions by the applicant so far, ASJ Amitabh Rawat allowed the applicant to visit her home town at Kishtwar for a period of one month.

However, Zargar was directed to continue to “diligently observe” all the bail conditions as imposed by the Delhi High Court and to furnish the itinerary of her visit to the investigating officer through official e-mail. 

“The applicant will ‘drop-a-pin’ on Google maps, so that the Investigating Officer can verify the applicant’s presence and location. The mobile numbers of the Investigating Officer is already known applicant and is also mentioned in the present application,” the court said.