A court here granted bail to a 55-year old man on Wednesday in a case related to the northeast Delhi communal violence, telling him he should maintain peace and harmony in his locality.
Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav granted the relief to Om Prakash Verma on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 20,000 and a surety of like amount in the case of looting and setting on fire a motorcycle repairing shop in the Karawal Nagar area during the riots.
The court directed Verma to install 'Aarogya Setu App' on his mobile phone and to furnish his mobile number to the Station House Officer of Police Station Karawal Nagar.
"Considering the facts and circumstances of the case in totality, applicant Om Prakash Verma, is accordingly admitted to bail on his furnishing a personal bond in the sum of Rs 20,000 with one surety in the like amount ....subject to the condition that he shall not tamper with evidence or influence any witness in any manner; he shall maintain peace and harmony in the locality...," it said in its order.
During the hearing held through video conferencing, Verma's counsel said he was a permanent resident of the area and has been falsely implicated in the incident which happened near his house.
His lawyer further said that no recovery has been effected from him.
Since the investigation in the case was complete and the trial was likely to take a long time, no useful purpose would be served by keeping him in custody, the lawyer said.
Special Public Prosecutor Ram Chander Singh Bhadoria opposed the bail application, saying that during the course of investigation, complainant Raju Malik had identified Verma from the CCTV footage.
The public prosecutor further said that Verma has also been identified by Constable Ashok and Constable Vinay. In the CCTV footage, Verma was clearly seen having a stick in his hand, the prosecutor said.
The process of identification of conspirators, facilitators and local supporters was ongoing and Verma can help the co-accused persons in absconding if released on bail, he argued.
According to the prosecution, Malik's motorcycle repairing and spare-parts shop was looted on February 25 by a large number of rioters.
They came with iron rods and sticks in their hands and threw all the things of the shop outside, looted it and put the articles on fire, the police had said.
Malik somehow managed to escape and save his life, the police had said.
The communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between groups supporting and opposing the amended citizenship law, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
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