NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant bail to a student accused of inciting violence during a protest by industrial workers in Noida on April 13, and asked her to approach the Allahabad High Court.
A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing the plea of Aakriti Chaudhary, a Delhi University student accused in the case.
“Why don’t you go to the Supreme Court? Everyone comes here filing a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution. There are 93,000 cases pending in the Supreme Court,” the court observed.
Chaudhary’s lawyer argued that the police had not presented reasons for the arrest and sought bail, stating that she was a postgraduate student at Daulat Ram College in Delhi.
However, the top court issued a notice to Uttar Pradesh police officials on a separate plea filed by Keshaw Anand alleging custodial torture.
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 also allowed his lawyers to be present during the investigation process.
Chaudhary and Gupta are both from Delhi and are in their twenties.
Chaudhary has a master’s degree in history from Daulat Ram College, while Chauhan is a worker at an industrial unit in Noida.
In the custody application, the police maintained that there was “full possibility of obtaining important evidence from the place of residence of the accused”.
Protests by factory workers demanding an increase 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 their long-pending demand for wage revision and raised slogans during the demonstration.
However, the protest descended into violence when some participants allegedly vandalized property, threw stones and set a vehicle on fire.
(With input from PTI)
