Man Who Pointed Pistol At Policemen During 2020 Delhi Riots To Stay In Jail Despite Getting Bail In Another Case

On Saturday (7 October), a Delhi court granted bail to Shahrukh Pathan, who became the infamous poster boy of 2020 northeast Delhi riots over his picture holding a pistol at a policeman, while saying that the visual left the conscience of the court shaken.

The court was hearing Pathan’s bail plea related to a separate case, where a civilian named Rohit Shukla was injured with gunshots. Pathan is an accused in the case, as he was allegedly part of the mob that caused gunshot injuries to Shukla.

The incident took place near the Maujpur chowk on 24 February, 2020 (FIR number 49/2020 registered at Jafrabad Police Station). Pathan was arrested in April 2020.

The Karkardoona Sessions Court said Pathan was being granted bail in the case as all other co-accused persons in the case are already on bail.

He however will continue to remain in jail over the case where he pointed a pistol at a policeman. Commenting on that case, Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat said, “The court is also conscious of the fact that accused Shahrukh Pathan is also involved in another rioting case where he is stated to have made an attack on the life of a police official, however, the said case will be dealt with on its own facts.”

In that case (FIR number 51/2020 at Jafrabad police station), a bail plea by Pathan was rejected by a court in March this year. The court had then said that Pathan’s behaviour in the jail as seen in the CCTV footage in the past couple of months was “completely unsatisfactory”.

Readers may remember that a section of the media that calls itself ‘secular’ and ‘liberal’ had attempted to whitewash Pathan’s act of pointing pistol at the policeman.

For instance, The Quint news portal published a profile of Pathan in August 2021 and gave it the headline, “Shahrukh Pathan: the son, friend and person behind the iconic image of Delhi riots”.