Delhi Riots: High Court asks jail officials to shift Jamia student to guest house for exams

New Delhi, December 3: The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the jail authorities to forthwith take Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, arrested in a case related to the northeast Delhi riots earlier this year, to a guest house to enable him to study and appear in examinations scheduled from Friday.

Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri also asked the jail superintendent to permit the accused to take studying material with him and provide him other teaching material, if required, NDTV reported.

Tanha was directed to be taken to a guest house in Lajpat Nagar as suggested by the police and agreed by his counsel.

The court said it would be the responsibility of the jail superintendent that from the guest house, the accused be taken to the examination centre at JMI university at 8:30 AM on December 4, 5 and 7 and brought back. He will be brought back to jail after the three exams are over.

The court also allowed Tanha to make a phone call to his counsel for 10 minutes once a day during his stay at the guest house.

A trial court has granted him three-day custody parole – December 4, 5 and 7 – to appear in compartment / supplementary exams of BA Persian (Hons).

However, he was not satisfied with it on the grounds that his entire day will be wasted and he will not be able to study and approached the high court seeking interim bail for the purpose.

His interim bail was opposed by Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the state, who stated that no such relief ought to be granted to Mr Tanha and suggested that he can be permitted to stay in a guest house under judicial custody till his exams get over on December 7.

The state, also represented through advocate Amit Mahajan, suggested four places which will be guarded by security officials and the petitioner’s counsel accepted the guest house in Lajpat Nagar.

Advocate Sowjhanya Shankaran, representing Tanha, had said the accused was ready to give an undertaking to surrender immediately after the exams and that he would not seek benefit of the full court’s COVID-19 orders in which interim reliefs were granted to prisoners and regularly extended.

Besides granting custody parole, the trial court had also directed the Jail Superintendent to provide necessary assistance in terms of the teaching material for the examinations of the accused.

It had said that clearing the exams was necessary for Tanha to pursue MA in Persian, and that leniency must be shown to the accused by allowing him to appear for the said exams.

Asif Iqbal Tanha was arrested on May 19 in the case for allegedly being part of a premeditated conspiracy in the riots.

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between the Citizenship (Amendment) Act supporters and its protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured. 

https://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/delhi-riots-high-court-asks-jail-officials-to-shift-jamia-student-to-guest-house-for-exams-2333935