SC asks student arrested for Noida violence to approach HC

The Supreme Court of India refused bail to a student accused of inciting violence during a Noida workers’ protest and directed her to approach the Allahabad High Court. The case relates to alleged unrest during a wage protest that turned violent, while the court also issued notice in a related custodial torture complaint

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant bail to a student accused of inciting violence during the industrial workers’ protest in Noida on April 13.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan asked the counsel appearing for Aakriti Chaudhary to approach the Allahabad High Court.

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“Why don’t you go to high court ? Everybody comes here by filing petition under Article 32 of the Constitution. There are 93,000 cases pending in the Supreme Court,” the bench observed.

The counsel appearing for Chaudhary submitted that grounds of arrest were not given by the police to the accused and sought bail.

He told the apex court that Chaudhary is a student of Delhi University.

The top court also issued notice to police officials on a plea filed by one Keshaw Anand alleging torture by Uttar Pradesh police officials.

A Noida court had earlier allowed conditional police remand of three women, Chaudhary, Manisha Chauhan and Srishti Gupta, accused of inciting violence during the industrial workers’ protest on April 13.

The court had also allowed their lawyers to be present during investigation proceedings.

Chaudhary and Gupta are both from Delhi and in their 20s. Chaudhary has a masters in history from Daulat Ram College, while Chauhan is a worker with an industrial unit in Noida.

In the application for custody, police contended that there was “full possibility of getting important evidence from the place of residence of the accused”.

Protests by factory workers demanding a hike in wages turned violent in parts of Noida last month.

According to officials, a large number of workers from various industrial units gathered to press for their long-pending demand for salary revision and raised slogans during the demonstration.

The protest, however, escalated into violence as some participants allegedly vandalised property, pelted stones and set a vehicle on fire.