Haldwani Encounter Case: Nainital High Court grants bail to three more accused

The Uttarakhand High Court has granted bail to three poor laborers who have been suffering in jail for nearly two years in the Haldwani violence case.
According to a release issued here today, the court ordered the conditional release of the accused on bail due to lack of evidence and prolonged detention. The High Court has written in its decision that there is no direct evidence against the accused. A two-member bench of the Uttarakhand High Court, comprising Justices Pankaj Prabhata and Manoj Kumar Tiwari, had reserved the decision after hearing the arguments of Advocate CK Sharma last week.
While arguing on the bail application of the accused, Junaid, Danish Malik, and Ayaz Ahmed, CK Sharma told the court that the names of the accused are not mentioned in the FIR and nor has the police recovered any kind of weapon from the accused, and the application of the UAPA law is also questionable.
It is clear that in the Haldwani violence case, the accused who are victims of police excesses are being provided legal aid on the instructions of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind President Maulana Syed Arshad Madani. So far, the bail of 79 accused has been approved under the stringent UAPA law.
The bail application of the accused, Zia-ur-Rehman, Abdul Rehman, Rais Ahmed, and Zeeshan Parvez, is under consideration. The bail applications of two accused, Zia-ur-Rehman and Abdul Rehman, will be heard in the Supreme Court on Friday, December 12.
As a result of the follow-up by the Jamiat Ulama Legal Aid Committee, the default bail of 50 accused was approved by the High Court in the first phase and 22 accused in the second phase, including the default bail of six women. After the approval of the default bail, the regular bail applications of the accused are being filed one after the other, which will be argued by Senior Advocate Nityarama Krishnan.
During the hearing yesterday, Advocate CK Sharma was assisted by Advocate Mujahid Ahmed, Advocate Nitin Tiwari, Advocate Vijay Pandey, Advocate Manish Pandey, Advocate Aasif Ali, Advocate Danish Ali, Advocate Zamir Ahmed, Advocate Muhammad Adnan, and others, while the family members of the accused were present along with Maulana Maqim Qasmi (President, Jamiat Ulama, Nainital), Maulana Muhammad Qasim (General Secretary, Jamiat Ulama, Nainital), Maulana Muhammad Aasim (City President, Jamiat Ulama, Haldwani), Mufti Luqman, Dr. Adnan, Abdul Hasib, and others.
On February 8, 2024, unrest broke out in the Muslim-majority area of Banbhoolpura in Haldwani city, Uttarakhand, when the police arrived to demolish a constructed mosque and madrasa. A clash broke out between the police and the local people before the demolition, after which five Muslim youths were killed in police firing.
After the incident, the Banbhoolpura police registered three cases against 101 Muslim men and women and also applied the stringent UAPA law against them.