Six leaders of transporters, including those arrested under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) for disrupting supplies of the essential commodities, were on Monday denied bail by a Delhi court.

Acting tough against the striking truckers, Delhi Police had on January 10 invoked the NSA against five persons, including against All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) President Charan Singh Lohara. "The prosecution story in brief is that the accused are the office-bearers of the AIMTC and they are instrumental in organising the strike and disrupting the movement of essential commodities.

"Keeping in view the facts and circumstance and the nature of offence, I am of the considered view that the present applications are without merits and are hereby dismissed," Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Dabas said. The court dismissed bail plea of AIMTC President Lohara, Secretary S Venugopal, and others Hari Goyal, Om Prakash Aggarwal, R Sugumar and Sunil Atri.

In their plea, Jugul Kishore and P K Sharma, counsel for AIMTC office bearers submitted the Government had invoked NSA against the accused just to keep them in detention for indefinite period.

They also contended that the accused were not disrupting the supply of essential commodities. "The right to protest is a fundamental right. The truckers were just raising their genuine demands while the Government never tried to talk to them," the lawyers alleged.