The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed former Aam Aadmi Party Councillor Tahir Hussain, an accused in the 2020 Delhi riots case, to be released on custody parole to campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections in the national capital, reported Bar and Bench.

Hussain is contesting the elections, scheduled for February 5, on an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen ticket from the Mustafabad seat. The counting of votes will take place on February 8.

On January 22, a division bench of the court delivered a split verdict on Hussain’s petition seeking interim bail.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta granted him custody parole from January 29 till February 3 for campaigning, subject to several conditions, Live Law reported.

“He [Hussain] shall be let out for 12 hours every day as per jail manual,” Bar and Bench quoted the bench as saying. “Pending bail plea before High Court to be decided on its own merits.”

The Aam Aadmi Party had suspended Hussain after he was listed as an accused in the riots case. He subsequently joined the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen in December.

The case pertained to the clashes that had broken out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing the controversial legislation. The violence left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.

Hussain has been in custody since March 16, 2020, in connection with the matter and had 11 cases against him, including a larger conspiracy case related to the riots and a money-laundering case. He has been granted bail in eight of the cases.

On January 14, the Delhi High Court refused to grant him interim bail and instead gave him custody parole. Subsequently, Hussain moved the Supreme Court.

One of the charges against him included the killing of an Intelligence Bureau staffer named Ankit Sharma during the riots.

The split verdict on January 22 came in this case. While Justice Pankaj Mithal rejected the petition, Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said that Hussain should be granted interim bail.

At the hearing on Monday, the three-judge bench asked the Delhi government to give details about the cost and the number of security personnel required if Hussain was to be granted custody parole instead of interim bail in all the cases in which he was yet to be given relief, Bar and Bench reported.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the Delhi Police, told the court that it would cost more than Rs 4 lakh per day to deploy security personnel and ensure other arrangements to facilitate custody parole for Hussain.

Opposing the petition, Raju also told the court that granting Hussain custody parole would set a precedent for other prisoners to file papers to contest elections in order to get similar relief, Bar and Bench reported.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, representing Hussain, urged the court to grant the former Aam Aadmi Party councillor custody parole in all cases that he was yet to receive bail on so that he could campaign while still remaining in custody.

Hussain was also willing to stay at a hotel room instead of his residence so as to allay concerns of influencing witnesses, Aggarwal added.

In its order, the bench asked Hussain to abide by the undertakings given by his counsel for custody parole, which included a condition that he would not visit his residence at Karawal Nagar and that he would refrain from making statements on the pending cases against him.

The court added that the former Aam Aadmi Party councillor could be released for the day as per the timings of the jail manual after the deposit of Rs 2,47,000 for his expenses, which was half of what was submitted by the Delhi Police, Bar and Bench reported.