The Allahabad High Court on Monday granted interim relief to Zafar Ali, Chairman of the Sambhal Jama Masjid Committee, by staying any coercive action against him in relation to last year’s violent clashes during a court-ordered survey of the centuries-old mosque.
Ali had moved the court seeking to quash the police charge sheet filed against him in connection with the violence that erupted during the survey of the 500-year-old Jama Masjid on November 24, 2024. The unrest led to an FIR being registered against thousands, including Sambhal MP Zia ur Rehman.
During a hearing on Ali’s plea, a single-judge bench of Justice Sameer Jain directed the petitioner to submit a rejoinder and asked the state government to file its response. The court also ordered that Ali’s petition be tagged with the petition previously filed by MP Zia ur Rehman. Both matters will now be heard together, with the next hearing scheduled for the second week of October.
Zafar Ali was arrested in March 2025 after his name surfaced during the investigation and was later granted bail by the High Court on July 24, 2025. He has since challenged the findings of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which recently submitted a voluminous charge sheet exceeding 4,400 pages across six related cases.
Ali has petitioned the High Court to cancel the charge sheet, asserting that the charges are unfounded and based on a flawed investigation. His petition now forms part of a broader legal challenge to the handling of the case by law enforcement authorities.
