A Delhi court on Tuesday denied bail to eight members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, who were arrested for vandalising Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house on March 30, Bar and Bench reported. The outfit is the students’ wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Denying them bail, Additional Sessions Judge Naveen Kumar Kashyap said that the accused men intentionally exceeded their fundamental right to protest peacefully.
“There is no doubt that right to assemble and protest by a political party is a fundamental right,” Justice Kashyap said, according to Live Law. “But having noted so it can also be noted that such right is subject to certain restrictions and not an uncontrolled one.”
The court said the accused men had no regards for the directions issued by the High Court that had stated that no protest is allowed outside the chief minister’s house. Kashyap also said the accused persons violated the directions of police officials at three different security checkpoints.
“Therefore, when an individual behaves in a disharmonious manner ushering in disorderly thing which the society disapproves, the legal consequences are bound to follow,” Justice Kashyap said.
Senior advocate Kirti Uppal, appearing on behalf of the accused persons, told the court that the protestors had no intention to hurt anyone, The Indian Express reported. “It was only a demonstration which is a right of every citizen and political party under the constitution,” Uppal argued.
The Delhi Police told the court that they had denied permission to Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha chief Tejasvi Surya and other BJP leaders who had sought to protest outside Kejriwal’s home.
The police also said that they guided the demonstrators to a designated spot where they could protest. “But they started moving towards ‘first layer’ of barricades and started pushing the barricades to break the chain,” the police told the court.
The incident
On March 30, the Aam Aadmi Party had alleged that BJP members broke CCTV cameras and security barriers at Kejriwal’s house in the presence of the Delhi Police.
In CCTV camera footage shared by the party on Twitter, a group of people – some of them wearing saffron scarves and headgear – could be seen breaking a security barrier in front of Kejriwal’s house and banging on the main gate.
The Delhi Police had filed a case against unidentified people in connection to the attack under Indian Penal Code sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty).
A case was also registered under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
The BJP has been holding protests against Kejriwal in connection with his remarks on March 24 about the Hindi film The Kashmir Files.
Kejriwal had said that the makers of the film should release it on video streaming platform YouTube so that everyone could watch it free of cost. He had made the comment in response to demands by BJP leaders that that the movie should be exempted from entertainment tax in Delhi.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!