The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday quashed Noida Police’s detention of a DU Law student and activist, Aakriti Chaudhary, under the National Security Act (NSA).
Aakriti Chaudhary, a 25-year-old history graduate from Delhi University, who recently enrolled in Law, was accused of instigating arson and stone-pelting by industrial workers during a protest in the city on April 13 demanding an increase in minimum wages.
She was arrested on April 12 before the unrest near Botanical Garden and has been behind bars ever since.
Aakriti was named in 11 FIRs, and a month later, the NSA was invoked against her.
While the court’s order has set aside her NSA detention, describing it as “arbitrary and vague”, it does not automatically bring an end to the FIRs in which she was arrested.
Her lawyer, Manik Gupta, said Aakriti had been arrested in multiple FIRs linked to the episode. She has secured bail in some of the cases, but remains in custody as proceedings in others continue.
Out of the 11 FIRs against her, Aakriti has secured bail in five FIRs, while six bail pleas are yet to be heard in the High Court
The police also allegedly relied on WhatsApp groups of which Choudhary was a member. Gupta said these were old groups comprising Delhi University students and that, despite having access to her phone, the police could not produce before the court any message or video showing her calling for violence.
Aakriti’s counsel Manik Gupta said police had failed to produce any evidence in court to support their arguments that she was instrumental in instigating mobs on April 13. Pointing to all the “illegalities” of the state police and showed photos of the Karawal Nagar event where children participated in a cultural programme, being framed as a conspiracy meeting.
Allowing her habeas corpus plea after finding several procedural lapses when it examined the sequence of her arrest and issuance of notices by police under BNSS, a division bench of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Achal Sachdev ordered compensation of Rs 5 lakh for Aakriti and directed her immediate release if arrest was not warranted in any other case.
For Aakriti, however, the legal battle is far from over. While the DU student still awaits a trial in the remaining FIRs, she is still actively advocating for the trials of other people detained and arrested in the Noida Protest.
Image Sourec: Maktoob Media
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