Syed Ali Ahmed | India Tomorrow

NEW DELHI, JUNE 23—The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked Rajdhani Public School owner Faisal Farooq to submit his reply on the Delhi police petition seeking cancellation of his bail.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled on July 1.

Farooq was granted bail by the trial court on June 20 on the ground that the police in its chargesheet has failed to provide his links with the Peoples Front of India (PFI), Pinjra Tod group and Muslim clerics of Deoband.

But the high court on June 22 stayed the bail orders.

The high court order came on a petition filed by the Delhi police challenging the trial court’s order.

The Delhi government counsel Rahul Mehra had opposed the petition filed by the central government counsel on behalf of the Delhi police. He had submitted that the central government had no powers to file the present petition against the bail orders of the trial court.

But Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that he had been directed by the central government to file the present petition and appear before the high court in this case.

On Tuesday, Advocate Ramesh Gupta appearing on behalf of Farooq said that Faisal had been granted bail by the trial court but he was kept in custody in some other case.

Farooq was arrested in connection with the burning of a school in Shiv Vihar locality in Northeast Delhi on February 24. As many as 18 persons, including Farooq, were arrested in this connection.

When the police filed the charge-sheet on June 3, in a brief note it claimed that investigations in the case disclosed that Farooq had links with Popular Front of India (a banned outfit), Pinjra Tod, Jamia Coordination Committee, Tablighi Jamaat Markaz at Hazrat Nizamuddin and some clerics in Deoband.  Police claimed that on Farooq’s instruction mob destroyed DRP Convent School, two parking lots and Anil Sweets building.

While granting the bail on June 20, the trial court Judge Vinod Yadav had observed that charge-sheet filed by the police had nothing to link Farooq with the PFI, Pinjra Tod group, Deoband and others. 

The charge-sheet also failed to prove that Farooq was present on the spot at the time of incident.

Farooq has been in jail since March 8.

HC Orders to Expedite Compensation claims of riot victims

Meanwhile, Justice Navin Chawla of Delhi High Court on Tuesday also directed the Delhi Government to expeditiously process the applications seeking compensation for the Northeast Delhi riot victims in accordance with state government’s order dated March 5, 2020.

Justice Chawla also directed the Delhi government to accept all such applications without insisting on furnishing a copy of the FIR.