New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has granted Tahir Hussain, an accused in the 2020 Delhi riots case and the AIMIM’s candidate in Delhi’s Mustafabad constituency, a six-day in custody parole to campaign for the upcoming election.
This means he can canvass for the polls from sunrise to sunset from January 29 to February 3. He will be released in the morning and brought back to Tihar jail in the evening. Tahir Hussain will have to pay a sum of Rs 2 lakh per day in advance for security arrangements when he is out on parole.
A former AAP councillor, Tahir Hussain is among the accused in a case related to the murder of Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma during the riots in Northeast Delhi. He also faces charges of rioting and public mischief and is also an accused in the primary riots conspiracy case. He was expelled from AAP after the riots and he joined AIMIM last year.
The court has said Tahir Hussain cannot visit his home in Karawal Nagar and is also barred from making statements related to the case. He can, however, visit the AIMIM party office. The bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Sandeep Mehta also said the relief to Tahir Hussain cannot be cited as a precedent.
Earlier, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju had opposed the parole request, arguing that it would set a wrong precedent and every prisoner would file a nomination to contest polls to walk out of jail.
A two-judge bench last week delivered a split verdict on Tahir Hussain’s parole application. This led to the case moving to the three-judge bench.
In the Mustafabad constituency in Northeast Delhi, Tahir Hussain is up against AAP’s Adeel Ahmed Khan, BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht and Congress’s Ali Mahndi. The seat was won by AAP’s Haji Yunus last time.