Delhi court grants bail to 8 arrested in scuffle with cops at India Gate

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A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to eight protesters arrested in connection with a scuffle with police outside the Parliament Street Police Station.

Police had originally arrested 17 people in a case lodged at Parliament Street Police Station. On November 28, nine of them were granted bail.

The remaining eight were granted bail on Tuesday by Judicial Magistrate First Class Sahil Monga on a bond of Rs 20,000.

During the hearing, the additional public prosecutor opposed the bail, stating that more time is needed to "uncover the conspiracy" behind the political slogans hailing Madvi Hidma, and to uncover the source of funding for the students, who, he said, seem to possess expensive phones and earlier travelled to Hyderabad for a conference held by banned group, Radical Students' Union.

The counsel for the protesters pleaded that the arrested students are young and meritorious with no criminal antecedents.

The bail order stated that a significant portion of the objections raised by the investigation officer were related not to the present Parliament Street case, but to the investigation in the Kartavya Path case involving the use of pepper spray.

"These aspects pertain to a different incident and cannot be a ground to oppose bail in the present FIR," said the bail order dated December 2.

"The concerns regarding their absconding or tampering with evidence can be addressed by imposing reasonable conditions. Further custodial detention is not necessary, as the Investigating Officer (IO) has not sought police custody and the investigation does not appear to require their incarceration," it read.

In all, 23 protesters were arrested in a case each registered at the Parliament Street and Kartavya Path police station.

Seventeen of them were arrested in connection with the scuffle at the Parliament Street Police Station, and six were held at the Kartavya Path Police Station in a case over the alleged use of pepper spray on police by agitators at India Gate.