The Delhi High Court in the case observed and has refused to provide entire CCTV footage which pertains to the North-East Delhi area, where riots erupted in 2020, and chats of WhatsApp groups of police officials to Devangana Kalita, who being one of the accused in the UAPA case wherein it alleged a larger conspiracy behind the violence.
The court while considering the nature and the fact that the investigation is ongoing in other individual riots cases, wherein the Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat agreed with the stand of the Delhi Police that the entire footage for the North-East Delhi, which being relevant for the cases of individual and supplied to the accused named therein, the same need not be supplied to Kalita in the UAPA case.
It has been submitted by the Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad before the court that the relevant chats which pertains to the larger conspiracy case have been supplied to Kalita except the chats of official police WhatsApp groups which may contain sensitive information or privileged communication.
The court in its order stated that the supply of complete chats of the entire WhatsApp group to all accused persons but which being on the aspect of official of police WhatsApp group chats, thus, it contains the information about the police officials and their activities and the relevant chats/relied upon have been filed and supplied.
Adding to it, the court stated that the supply of the entire chats of the said group is not required under Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, thus, the same would hold for other police WhatsApp groups. The court disposed of the application moved by Kalita’s under section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure wherein it provides that the concerned Magistrate shall provide the copies of documents or relevant material relied upon by the prosecution free of cost to the accused without any delay.
The name of the accused is Tahir Hussain, Umar Khalid, Khalid Saifi, Isharat Jahan, Meeran Haider, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Mohd. Saleem Khan, Athar Khan, Safoora Zargar, Sharjeel Imam, Faizan Khan, Gulfisha Fatima and Natasha Narwal.
It has also been directed by the said court that all the accused person needs to appear physically on next date onwards when the hearing of the matter will be start.
The court in the case observed and has stated that the I.O., the Investigation Officer concerned shall remain present on the next date of hearing and the copy of the said order needs to be sent to the concerned Jail Superintendent for information and compliance.
Accordingly, the court stated to list the matter for day-to-day hearing from September 11, 2023.