HC notice on bail plea of three jailed UNI employees

The Delhi High Court has issued notice to police on the bail plea of three UNI news agency employees accused of making casteist remarks against another employee.

Justice Sunita Gupta Friday asked Delhi Police to file its reply on the bail pleas of the two senior journalists and an office accountant by Dec 17.

The trial court Thursday dismissed the bail pleas of the three men and sent them to jail for making casteist remarks, saying the allegation against them are "very serious".

The trio -- United News of India (UNI) joint editor Neeraj Bajpai, Univarta (Hindi department) deputy chief of bureau Ashok Upadhyay and accounts department employee M.L. Joshi -- are facing trial for allegedly making caste-based derogatory remarks against complainant Virender Verma, who was from the Scheduled Caste.

The police charge-sheet filed in November said that these accused had passed "casteist and derogatory remarks" against one of their colleague in March this year.

It added that the complainant had gone to meet Bajpai in his office, where Upadhyay and Joshi, who is also a union official, were sitting, regarding a letter issued to him by the management. There they shouted at him and also made remarks that he considered derogatory.

The accused denied the charges, saying the complaint was "false and fabricated".

Police booked them under section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act that deals with punishment for offences of atrocities for causing insult.