Ground Report

Varun Gandhi Granted Bail

A court in Pilibhit has granted bail to embattled BJP leader Varun Gandhi in two separate cases relating his alleged hate speeches but he will remain in jail because of his detention under the National Security Act.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Vipin Kumar granted the bail to the 29-year-old leader asking him to furnish two personal bonds of Rs 20,000 each after 45 minutes of arguments by the prosecution and the defence lawyers on Monday.
The magistrate gave the bail to Varun in two separate cases–one relating to allegedly causing breach of peace through inflammatory speeches at Barkhera and the other on the charge of violating prohibitory order.

Arguing for Varun’s bail, his lawyer Siddharth Luthra alleged there was no evidence against his client and the video tapes purportedly showing his client making the speeches were fabricated.
He said the CDs have been sent to the forensic test and the report was awaited and there was no point in keeping Varun in detention.
Luthra said the prosecution based their case on local intelligence reports and statements of shopkeepers-witnesses none of whom was named in the case diary.

Luthra also contended that there was a delay in filing the case diary on 26^th March although the incident had taken place on 18^th March.

The prosecution, on the other hand, referred to the CDs and the witnesses seeking to buttress the argument that Varun’s speeches had vitiated the atmosphere.

 The Uttar Pradesh government has said it has no plans to shift BJP leader Varun Gandhi, who has been booked under the NSA by the state government for his inflammatory speeches, from the Pilibhit jail and there was no security threat there.

"We do not have any plans as of now to shift Gandhi from Pilibhit jail," Secretary Home Kumar Kamlesh told reporters in reply to a question in Lucknow on Monday.

There were reports in a section of media that Gandhi will be shifted from the district jail.
About the security arrangements in the jail, Kamlesh said that the security was up to the specified norms and there was no problem in this regard.

When asked whether the government was inquiring into the alleged laxity by the district administration during Varun’s arrest, Kamlesh said that till now no inquiry was underway.

About the CD of inflammatory speeches, which was sent to forensic examination in Agra, Kamlesh said that the report was still awaited.

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