HC seeks status report on Jarnail Singh bail plea

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked Delhi Police to file status report on the anticipatory bail plea of Aam Aadmi Party legislator Jarnail Singh for allegedly assaulting a civic engineer and stopping him from carrying out his duty.

Justice Sunita Gupta refused to grant immediate protection to Singh from the arrest and issued notice to Delhi Police to file status report on the issue by Wednesday.

"Let them (police) file status report. Issue notice to Delhi police," said the court posting the matter for May 6.

The Tilak Nagar legislator is also accused of tearing up official documents and threatening to frame South Delhi Municipal Corporation junior engineer Athar Mustafa in a false corruption case.

The scuffle took place when Mustafa, with his team and policemen, went to bring down an illegal structure in Krishna Park Extension area.

The trial court on Saturday had rejected Singh's anticipatory bail plea, after which he moved the high court.

Appearing for Singh, senior advocate and AAP member H.S. Phoolka told the court that petitioner should not be arrested as most of the charges under which FIR has been registered are bailable offence and nothing is required to be recovered from him.

"There is no need of custodial interrogation. Singh has been falsely implicated in the case. He was the one who had made police complaints about the incident. After the FIR registered, Singh was present in the police station from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and was neither detained nor arrested," Phoolka argued.

Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi on Tuesday told media that Singh is absconding over his alleged involvement in assault on an MCD engineer.

Phoolka denied the police chief's claim, saying he was giving misleading statement to media.

Police have registered an F.I.R against Singh under IPC sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of duty) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intentions) at Tilak Nagar Police station.