No Bail No Trial: Gulfisha Fatima's 5 Year-Long Ordeal Of After Her Arrest In 2020 Delhi Riots
New Delhi: Gulfisha Fatima, a student activist arrested for protesting against the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) in 2020, on Wednesday, April 9, completed five years of detention without bail or trial. Charged with the Draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots, the 33-year-old is spending life’s precious time behind the bar.
Though the Supreme Court granted bail to Fatima, a woman hailing from a lower-income area in northeast Delhi, in May 2020 in connection with the Jafrabad protest case, she remained incarcerated as the police had imposed other serious sections, like IPC section 147, rioting with deadly weapons, section 148, murder, and charges for raising funds for unlawful activities.
Read Also: 4 Years, 7 Months In Jail: What Is Happening With Gulfisha Fatima?
One of the most serious allegations by the police against Fatima is that she instructed people who were protesting against the CAA to collect red chili powder, glass bottles, acid bottles, sticks and stones and prepared them to obstruct the roads. Police reportedly possess anonymous witnesses’ claims to support their allegations, though there are no records of any such things being recovered or being used, according to additional sessions judge Sameer Bajpai of the Karkardooma district court, Article 14 quoted Fatima’s lawyer Sarim Naved in a report.
“When they say red chili powder and tehzab (acid), let them show one seizure memo, one panchnama (record of evidence). They have nothing like that. What do they have? “Some protected witnesses,” the report quoted Naved.
Despite the Supreme Court’s position that bail should be the norm and jail the exception, even if the individual is charged under India’s anti-terrorism legislation, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, Fatima’s bail petitions have been pending for approximately three years in the High Court, even if the police does not posses strong incriminating evidences against the student activist.
Delhi police have claimed that the 2020 riots in the national capital were organized and carried out by Muslims protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), including Fatima and several others, such as Khalid, Khalid Saifi, Sharjeel Imam, and Meeran Haider, who have also been incarcerated for approximately the same duration.
Read Also: Ex-CJI Chandrachud Opens Up About Activist Umar Khalid’s Bail Rejection
The 2020 riots have resulted in the deaths of 53 people, mostly Muslims, and the members of the community were reportedly the ones who suffered major property losses. Yet, the police’ claim that Muslims organised and carried out the crime has casted a shadow on the public. It is alleged that the police do not have any medical, forensic and physical evidence against the riot accused, and they have imposed charges such as the terrorist act, sedition, and murder, on inferences, assumptions, and countless anonymized witness statements.
Fatima’s long incarceration had drawn international attention, and the US Commission for Religious Freedom had also voiced its concern over the long detention of the young activist. In 2021, three of Fatima’s co-accused – Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and Asif Iqbal Tanha – were granted bail, stating the police had blurred the lines between the right to protest and terrorism.
Senior lawyers have flagged concerns about the alleged apathy towards the plight of the incarcerated and indifference to the collapse of the rule of law and due process.
