Supreme Court grants custody parole to Tahir Hussain in remaining cases to canvass for polls

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain to be released on custody parole in all cases in which is he is yet to get bail, so that he can campaign for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls as an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate..Custody parole has been granted to Hussain from January 29 till February 3, subject to several conditions, including that he would only be allowed to leave jail (along with security) during the day time and return each night."He (Tahir Hussain) shall be let out for 12 hours every day as per jail manual. Pending bail plea before High Court to be decided on its own merits," the Court added. The Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta passed the order after a Division Bench was unable to agree on whether to grant Hussain interim bail. "Tahir Hussain shall abide by all undertakings stated by the senior counsel (who represented him in Court). The petitioner (Tahir Hussain) shall be released for the day as per timings of jail manual from January 29 to February 3 upon the deposit of expenses, being half of what is stated in chart (submitted by Delhi Police) - ₹2,47,000," the Court ordered.The Court also gave a timeline of when Hussain needs to pay up for the expenses to be borne by the State while he is out on custody parole. The expenses for the first two days of custody parole need to be paid by 6 PM today, the Court added. .Earlier today, the three-judge Bench had asked the Delhi government to give information on how much security personnel and costs would be required if Hussain is to be granted custody parole instead of interim bail in all the cases in which he is yet to give bail.It was taken up again this afternoon, when the Bench granted custody parole to Hussain despite strong objections by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju who represented the Delhi police.He, however, informed the Court that it would cost over ₹4 lakhs a day to deploy security staff and make other arrangements to facilitate Hussain's custody parole. He added that Hussain should be not released for entire day, if he is granted custody parole, but should only be allowed to leave jail and return to jail each day as per exit and entry times in the jail manual.Accordingly, the Court allowed Hussain to exit jail on entry parole, while accompanied by security, during the day time to canvass for the elections till February 3. The Court also directed Hussain to abide by the undertakings given by his counsel for custody parole, which includes conditions that he cannot visit his residence at Karawal Nagar and that he cannot make any comments regarding pending cases while out on parole. .Hussain had earlier sought interim bail in connection with one of the Delhi riots cases against him, in which an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer named Ankit Sharma had died.In his plea, he had pointed out that he has already been granted bail in other similar Delhi riots cases.The Court today, however, pointed out that even if he is granted interim bail in the Delhi riots case, there are two other cases, including a money laundering case, in which Hussain is yet to get bail.Hussain's counsel, Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal then suggested that Hussain be granted custody parole in all cases that he is yet to get bail on, so that he can connect with the electorate while still remaining under custody.Aggarwal added that his client is willing to stay at a hotel room instead of his residence so as to allay concerns of influencing witnesses..ASG SV Raju, however, strongly opposed the plea. He argued that the grant of custody parole will pave the way for more and more prisoners to simply file papers to contest elections in order to get similar relief. "We are not laying down any law, he sought a larger relief, now he is seeking limited relief. (February) 3rd midnight, canvassing will stop. 4th, he will come back," the Court replied, during the morning hearing. .Last week, a Division Bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ahsanuddin Amanullah had passed a split verdict on whether Hussain should be given interim bail. While Justice Mithal rejected Hussain's plea, Justice Amanullah opined that Hussain should be granted interim bail.Hussain has been in judicial custody since March 16, 2020. He initially moved the Delhi High Court for interim bail, which declined to grant him interim bail and instead gave him custody parole in the case concerning the death of the IB officer. He then approached the Supreme Court..[Read Live Coverage]