Read Time: 05 minutes

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday deferred hearing on the bail plea of UAPA accused Atiq-Ur-Rehman and two others in the Hathras Conspiracy case. All three were held by Uttar Pradesh Police along with Siddiqui Kappan in 2020 on their way to Hathras after the gang-rape case. 

The Bench of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Ajay Tyagi sent the matter to the Chief Justice for necessary orders noting that one of the connected petitions, the Habeas Corpus plea, remains part heard by another bench which, in its latest order, had directed the matter to come up for further hearing.

The bench stated, 

"The matter was placed before another Bench, but we are of the view that as repeated orders were passed by the previous Division Bench directing the matter to come up for further hearing on 15.09.2021 and again on 29.09.2021, the matter be placed before Hon'ble the Chief Justice for passing necessary orders in the matter so that all the matters are heard by the appropriate Court....if possible, on 10.02.2022."

The bench was posed with this dilemma as a result of an order passed by a single judge bench on August 13, 2021. Hearing the leading petition which was filed under Article 226, 227 of the Constitution, the single judge bench had issued a direction to club the bail applications also with that petition and place them before an appropriate bench. Thereafter, all connected matters were then heard by a division bench and are part heard. 

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Rehaman and others under Sections 153-A, 124-A, 295-A of IPC, 1860, Sections 17 and 18 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 [UAPA], and Section 65, 72 and 75 of Information Technology Act, 2000. The trial in the case is going on before a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Lucknow.

It is alleged that along with Kappan, Rehaman and others were going to Hathras, Uttar Pradesh to meet the family of the victim of the alleged Hathras rape and murder case with the intention to cause disturbance in the area. They were arrested on 5 October 2020 initially under charges related to apprehension of breach of peace, however, they were slapped with sedition and UAPA charges, later on. 

Case Title: Atiq-Ur-Rehman and 2 others v. State of Uttar Pradesh and 2 others