AAP members get bail

A Delhi court Monday granted bail to AAP leader Dilip Pandey and two party members arrested on charges of promoting enmity between different communities.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sheetal Chaudhary granted the bail to Pandey, Ram Kumar Jha and Javed Khan. The magistrate asked them to furnish a personal bond of Rs.30,000 each and surety of the same amount.

The three were arrested for the pasting of posters in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi urging the Muslims to lay siege to the houses of three Muslim Congress legislators for "shaking hands with the RSS and the BJP".

The court has directed them to neither tamper with the evidences connected with the case nor to influence the witnesses. The court also ordered them not to leave the city without prior permission of the court.

While arguing on the bail plea, the AAP leader's counsel termed the case as political conspiracy against the party and police as a mouthpiece of the central government.

"There should be a mens rea and it should not be on whims and fancy of the prosecution which is acting as the mouthpiece of the centre," said Pandey's counsel Rahul Mehra.

He said there was nothing to prove against any of the accused especially Pandey.

However, Public Prosecutor Nidhi Bala, while opposing the bail plea, said if the accused would be released, they would influence the witnesses of the case.

She further added that their acts were serious in nature.

A case under section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered.

The AAP has alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to woo the Congress legislators with offers of money in a bid to form a government in Delhi.