The Delhi Police has apprised a Delhi court that there was no provision in law, which granted right to convict t to ask for information on the status of the 2020 Delhi Riots conspiracy case investigation before arguments on charges against them begin.
Appearing for Delhi Police before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of the Karkardooma court, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad said there was no provision in law that granted the accused the right to demand such relief and sought dismissal of the applications on this ground.
The SPP further alleged that the culprits wanted to enter through the backdoor without mentioning the provision of law.
He said since there was no provision in law for such demand, the petitions ought to be dismissed.
He further said that the accused were seeking something which was not permissible and could not be entertained by this court.
The Delhi Police counsel said this was the sole reason why each application failed to disclose any provision of law.
Only the court had the right to know the status of investigation, he pointed out.
Alleging that the accused were filing such applications only to derail the trial, Prasad said that none of the verdicts cited by the accused gave the court the power to entertain an application in this manner.
He recalled out that the court had said on August 5 that it would start hearing day-to-day arguments in the case from September 11. Yet, the accused filed their applications on the day of the hearing to delay the trial, said Prasad.
He alleged that this was all planned as the accused waited for good 40 days to come up with this application.
Since the matter was fixed for day-to-day arguments, if the accused had a grievance, they could have challenged it before the High Court, but they waited till the last moment and now wanted to create a mayhem, said Prasad.
After listening to the SPP’s submissions in part, the ASJ listed the matter for further hearing on September 22.
Several petitions were filed by the accused, including accused persons including Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha and Devangana Kalita, seeking to know the status of the investigation in the Delhi riots cases filed against them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The petitioners said they wanted to know whether the investigation against them was complete before they reveal their defence while arguing on charges.
The petitions were supported by Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid and some others accused in the case.
The counsel appearing for the accused (defence) raised an apprehension that the prosecution may file supplementary charge sheets to fill gaps in the investigation, which may be pointed out by the accused during the arguments.