The Supreme Court on Friday quashed and set aside the bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to the two men accused of shooting at AIMIM leader and Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi. The SC bench comprising of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh has given the accused one week’s time to surrender before the concerned court. The apex court has also directed the high court to decide on the bail applications of the two accused within four weeks from the date of surrender.
The SC’s order was in response to a petition challenging the bail, which has cited The Quint’s exclusive report from August on the accused men. Sachin Sharma, one of the two accused, had told The Quint he doesn't have any regrets or remorse for his actions, and continued to threaten the leader.
What The Court and Petition Said
"….It can be seen that there are no reasons given at all by the High Court while enlarging the respondents on bail. Neither any Prima facie opinion is given nor even the material collected during the course of the investigation, which is part of the chargesheet have not been considered by the High Court,” Live Law reported the SC bench as saying.
The petition challenging the bail was filed by advocate MR Shamshad, representing Owaisi in the case.
The petition had said: "That it is submitted that the Respondent/accused no. 2 after being let out on bail by the Hon’ble High Court had given an interview to The Quint, wherein he had directly threatened the Petitioner herein...
When asked whether the Respondent no. 2 would be apologetic for his acts, he has stated that he wouldn’t and had further given a message to the Petitioner by stating that, “I want to give him a message. Look, one should not have arrogance that no one can do any harm to them. He (Owaisi) should have knowledge of our history. Our former PMs Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi...they were very powerful people, had a lot of security. But when it’s time for you to meet God, there is no one who can save you."
Earlier, on 30 September, the SC had sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government on the same.
The two accused, Sachin Sharma (aka Sachin Pandit), and Shubham Gujjar, were arrested on 3 February, hours after the alleged attempted shooting, and given bail by the Allahabad high court months later on 3 August. The Quint had visited Sachin at his residence later that month when he said: “There isn’t any power on earth which can make me apologise for what I did. I got many individual messages advising me to ask for forgiveness. But I said I cannot make any sacrifice with my self-respect. Even if they hang me. They can hang me today or later, I don’t care. There is no question of an apology."
The two accused were captured on a CCTV camera attempting to shoot at Owaisi at a toll plaza when the leader was returning to Delhi from Meerut after addressing a rally ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections.
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