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The Delhi High Court has granted bail to eight men who were arrested for alleged involvement in the vandalism incident at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's home on March 30. The accused were arrested by the Delhi Police on the same day.

Granting the relief to the arrested men, the single-judge bench of Justice Asha Menon noted, "The applicants have been in custody for 14 days...The evidence collected so far are of such a nature that the applicants cannot tamper with it...Thus, the continued custody of the applicants in jail is not called for only because some investigations are still going on."

Court further reasoned, "As to proper investigations, the witnesses are the policemen who were on duty and the staff of the CM Residence and the CCTV footage, which has been preserved...Since the nature of the evidence is such, there is no possibility of the applicants tampering with the evidence or inducing or threatening any witness."

Court noted that in the First Information Report(FIR) itself there is no mention of any weapon or arms nor of any call for violence rather it merely states that the applicants jumped the barricades.

"Here, the allegations are that the protestors have vandalised some of the CCTV cameras and an arm of a boom barrier and had also smeared paint on the main gate of the CM Residence. There is no allegation of damage to public property through arson and fire or other means on a scale that would clearly be a far more serious matter than what has been alleged against the applicants," Court stated.

Court also rejected the State’s argument that there was a fear of repetition of the offence and therefore Section 41(1)(b) Cr.P.C. was applicable.

Court said, "The foundation for this fear was a tweet of a Member of Parliament of the Bhartiya Janta Party who apparently threatened not to spare the Chief Minister of Delhi till he apologised for the comments made by him on the Floor of the House...It is indeed farfetched to claim that a repeat offence would occur because of a tweet.

"Therefore, there is no material on which any Police Officer could be satisfied that the applicants were required to be prevented from committing any further offence," Court added.

Therefore, considering the totality of the facts and circumstances of the case, Court allowed the bail plea of the 8 men and granted them bail on certain conditions and each of them furnishing a personal bond and a surety bond each for a sum of Rs.35,000 to the satisfaction of the llaqa Metropolitan Magistrate.

Furthermore, one Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj has filed a petition before the Delhi High Court seeking a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the incident. Dealing with the same, a division bench has asked the Delhi Police to furnish a report in sealed cover with regard to its investigation into the vandalism.

Case Title:Sunny v. State of N.C.T. of Delhi and other connected matters