A Delhi court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan in a case where he was accused of attacking police personnel and obstructing them from arresting Shahwez Khan, an alleged proclaimed offender.
“The allegation in the FIR that the applicant (Amanatullah Khan)…came to the spot (where the police personnel had come) is not supported by the CCTV footage..,” said Special Judge Jitendra Singh of the Rouse Avenue Court while granting anticipatory bail to the MLA.
While the police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Amanatullah, the judge had on February 14 granted him interim protection from arrest for 10 days which was later extended by one day. At the time, the judge had also questioned the police’s attempt to arrest Shahwez despite the anticipatory bail granted to him.
On Monday, Special Judge Singh pointed out that a supplementary chargesheet was not filed against Shawez and asked, “…what were the police officers doing with him inside a shop for 20 minutes?”
In his order on Tuesday, the judge said, “The conduct of the police team in detaining the accused Shahwez Khan inside the shop for about 20 minutes without any reason casts a cloud of doubt as they had the opportunity to immediately arrest accused Shahwez Khan. The police official cannot be allowed to justify their act of illegal detention as merely being mistake of fact and, thereafter, disentitle the accused of his right under the colour of performing official duty.”
On Monday the judge had also asked for the CCTV footage of Shahwez going inside the shop where the MLA allegedly obstructed his arrest.
“The CCTV footage after 2.29 pm is not available due to an alleged power cut in the area. The prosecution has failed to explain why the time of alleged offence was stated as 02.30 pm to 3 pm by the police team, even though accused Shahwez Khan was detained at 02.07 pm, as is apparently clear in the CCTV footage,” he noted in Tuesday’s order.
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Senior Public Prosecutor (SPP) Atul Srivastava argued that even if Shahwez Khan was on anticipatory bail, the AAP MLA had no right to interfere with the functioning of the police.
Amanatullah Khan and his supporters had been booked under sections including 221 (obstruction of public servants while they are performing their duties), and 132 (criminal force or assault against a public servant while they are performing their duties), of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Seeking the AAP MLA’s custody on behalf of the Delhi Police, Srivastava had also said that they wanted to question him. The SPP stated that Amanatullah is a powerful person who could influence witnesses and that he was lying about his absence in the area.
Advocate Rajat Bharadwaj, who represented the MLA along with advocates Mohammed Irshad and Kaustubh Khanna, argued before the court that the status report filed in the case was the Delhi Police’s admission of their mistake. He alleged that the police ‘inadvertently’ forgot to remove the name of Shahwez from the proclaimed offender’s list.
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The order said, “Here, no injury has been caused to any of the police official and taking into account the alleged role of applicant, I am of the opinion that anticipatory bail must not be denied solely on the basis of criminal antecedents.”
Of the 26 cases registered against the AAP MLA, he has been discharged or acquitted in 16. Five are pending trial and five are pending investigation.
