A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to nine students who were arrested during a protest against air pollution in the national capital on November 23, The Indian Express reported.

More than 20 students had been detained from India Gate, Kartavya Path and later from outside the Parliament Street police station following the protest.

Two first information reports were registered – one against six persons at the Kartavya Path police station and another against 17 persons at the Parliament Street police station.

The cases were initially filed under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to assault, obstruction of public servants and outraging the modesty of women. On November 25, the police also added charges pertaining to making assertions prejudicial to national integration to the FIR registered at the Kartavya Path police station.

The case filed at the Parliament Street police station was linked to an alleged scuffle between the protesters and the police, the newspaper reported. All 17 accused have since been granted bail.

While eight of them received bail last week, nine were granted bail on Tuesday.

The second FIR was related to the alleged recovery of pepper sprays during the protest and the purported Maoists links of the protesters, The Indian Express reported.

The court reserved its order on Tuesday on the bail petitions of the six accused in this case. The order is expected on Thursday.

While granting bail to the nine persons on Tuesday in the case filed at the Parliament Street police station, Judicial Magistrate First Class Sahil Monga of the Patiala House Court said that further custodial detention was not necessary as the investigation officer had not sought police custody.

Monga added that the investigation did not appear to require custody.

The magistrate added that a significant portion of the objections raised by the investigating officer related not to the case filed at Parliament Street but to the investigation in the FIR at the Kartavya Path police station, The Indian Express reported.

This second case included “allegations of protest at India Gate, recovery of pepper sprays, and criminal antecedents of certain individuals”, Monga said, adding that these pertained to a different incident and cannot be the grounds to oppose bail in the present FIR.

In the second case being heard before Judicial Magistrate First Class Aridaman Singh Cheema, the counsels for the students argued that being part of WhatsApp groups that organised the protest was not a crime. The lawyers said that what happened at the site was not in their control.

“You can’t swim in two boats,” the newspaper quoted one of the counsels as saying. “Earlier they said someone else had pepper spray, now they’re pinning it on my client.”

Another lawyer said that shouting an anti-establishment slogan was not a crime.

The police argued that custody was needed as the investigation was still underway, while also noting that the permission had not been sought for the protest.

During an earlier proceeding, the police had claimed that the accused had supported a banned organisation on social media and shared articles supporting Maoist leader Madvi Hidma, who was killed in a gunfight with security forces on November 18.

The students have been accused of using criminal force against police personnel and shouting pro-Maoist slogans at the protest at India Gate on November 23.

Some of the protesters had allegedly used pepper spray on the police personnel while being removed from the site, while some had allegedly displayed posters and shouted slogans allegedly supporting Hidma.

The protest on November 23 was mainly organised by an environmental research and action collective called Himkhand, student group Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch and the discussion forum Scientists for Society.

Scientists for Society, however, said on November 24 that it joined the protest only on the subject of pollution, and that the agitation was “not the appropriate forum” to discuss Hidma’s killing.

Also read: Why the police claim that a protest against Delhi pollution had ‘Naxal’ links