People raise slogans during a protest against worsening air quality in the national capital, at the India Gate, in New Delhi,.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The Delhi Police told a court here on Saturday that some of the protesters arrested for allegedly using pepper spray on police personnel during a demonstration at the India Gate over pollution attended a conference of the banned Radical Students' Union in Hyderabad earlier this year.
The submissions were made before Judicial Magistrate Aridaman Singh Cheema as police argued against granting bail to six accused in the case.
"There is video evidence on record that shows that some of the accused attended a conference of the Radical Students' Union (RSU) in Hyderabad on February 21 and 22," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), New Delhi, Dinesh Mahla said in the court.
He also said multiple videos have been found from the social media, showing the alleged links of the accused students and their support towards the Naxalite movement.
"We will need their police custody to confront them with the new evidence and if let out on bail, they might influence witnesses," the officer told the court.
Opposing the bail plea, the public prosecutor said the investigators need time to unearth the people behind the entire alleged conspiracy and find out on whose directions the protesters had raised slogans hailing Maoist leader Madvi Hidma.
The counsel for the accused contended that the police had enough time to interrogate the students and had still not found any concrete evidence against them.
"What do they want to interrogate? These students have already got bail in another similar case registered at the Parliament Street police station. They should not be kept in custody as police have nothing against them," the counsel said.
The counsel argued that keeping the students in jail for long based on the investigating agency's requirement will jeopardise their educational and career prospects.
"Police's case of an alleged conspiracy behind the protest falls flat on the face as carrying pepper spray does not necessarily mean that an assault is being planned on police personnel.... No one conspired to carry out any wrongdoing," advocate Abhinav Sekhri, representing one of the accused, Vishnu, told the court.
The court adjourned the hearing till Monday and asked police to file supplementary reports on the role of each of the accused.
Later in the day, police produced eight protesters before Duty Metropolitan Magistrate Anjali Singh and sought seven days' police custody in the same case.
Seeking further custody, police said they have found during their investigation that several meetings were held by some of the accused before staging the protest.
However, the magistrate sent all eight accused to judicial custody for two days.
A total of 23 protesters were arrested in two different cases registered at the Parliament Street and Kartavya Path police stations.
Seventeen of them were arrested in connection with a scuffle at the Parliament Street police station and six were held by the personnel at the Kartavya Path police station in a case over the alleged use of pepper spray on cops while agitating at the India Gate.
However, 15 of the 17 protesters named in the FIR at the Parliament Street police station have been arrested by the Delhi Police again in connection with the case registered at the Kartavya Path police station.
Of the 15, seven were formally arrested on November 25 and the remaining eight were arrested on Friday.