HC Grants Natasha Narwal 3-Week Bail for Father’s Last Rites

Natasha Narwal’s father was put on ventilator on Sunday, 9 May, and died a few hours later.

Natasha Narwal’s father was put on ventilator on 9 May and died a few hours later.

(Photo: Special Arrangement)

Delhi riots and UAPA accused Natasha Narwal’s bail plea to attend the last rites and cremation of her father Mahavir Narwal was granted by the Delhi High Court on Monday, 10 May. The Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani granted her a three-week interim bail.

“The release of the applicant is imperative in this hour of grief and personal loss and in the facts and circumstances of the case.”

Justice Siddharth Mridul noted during the hearing.

The plea had been filed initially to meet her ailing father battling COVID at a hospital in Haryana’s Rohtak district. By the time the case was heard on Monday, he had passed away. He breathed his last at 6 pm on 9 May.

She has been granted bail on conditions that include a personal bond of Rs 50,000, to provide her number to the concerned police stations in Delhi and Haryana, etc.

The Special Public Prosecutors Amit Mahajan and Amit Prasad did not oppose the bail plea. They, however, made a request towards the end of the hearing that Narwal does not use social media to comment on the case in the interim. The court noted the request and made an oral remark to her lawyer, Adit Pujari, that she must maintain ‘radio silence’.

“I am not recording but telling you that she will maintain radio silence, otherwise we may be constrained to recall the order[sic.],” Justice Siddharth Mridul noted.

Communist & Scientist: Who Was Mahavir Narwal

Natasha’s father, Mahavir Narwal, was a senior member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and a retired senior scientist from CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar.

He had been hospitalised on Monday, 3 May, and was a diabetes patient which caused additional complications in his treatment of COVID. He was put on a ventilator on Sunday and died a few hours later.

Natasha was arrested over a year ago on 23 February, on charges of instigating the north-east Delhi riots which claimed the lives of 53 people. She is a member of Pinjra Tod and a student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

In their statement, Pinjra Tod said that Narwal was engaged with and will be committed to progressive politics till the end.

“Mahavir Narwal campaigned hard to prove the innocence of Natasha who was incarcerated for her peaceful participation in the protest against the CAB (Citizenship Amendment Bill). This was not his first brush with prison. He himself had been imprisoned for his participation in protests during the Emergency,” the statement read.