A court here on Thursday said the proceedings of the Delhi riots "conspiracy" case, in which several persons have been booked under the anti-terror law, must be expedited. Several persons have been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the case and are accused of being the "masterminds" of the February 2020 violence, which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured. To expedite the case, Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat has directed all the accused to file applications under section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) within two weeks.
Section 207 commands that an accused must be supplied with a copy of all the evidence and material collected against him during the course of the investigation and relied upon by the prosecution in the chargesheet. "The court deems it fit that the proceedings of the case must be expedited and the application for discharge/charge of accused can't be decided without other coaccused persons arguing on the point of charge, which would happen only after the scrutiny of documents under section 207 is complete," the judge said.
He directed the prosecution to supply all the deficient documents as pointed out in the applications and file a reply only on those documents on which it has reservations. "This would smoothen the entire process and crystallise the arguments in respect of only those documents/records on which arguments are required to be addressed," the judge added.
All the accused were produced before the court through a video-conference on Thursday. During the course of the hearing, accused Salim Khan told the court, "I am in jail for the last 19 months. I am innocent. My children's education has been disturbed." He further said, "I am not financially strong to rope in a big lawyer. In such a situation, I have no choice but to die. I am in depression. I do not feel like eating. I am alive just because my children are outside." The other accused put forth various requests. Tasleem pointed out that he was attacked in the jail about two-and-a-half months ago and sought security. Ishrat Jahan requested for headphones to be provided to her during her meetings with her family members and counsel. Athar Khan said certain books were sent by his family to him which were not delivered to him. He also requested for a copy of the Holy Quran.
Former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Umar Khalid, students of the university Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, Jamia Coordination Committee member Safoora Zargar, former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and several others have been booked in the case.
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