Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad told a Karkardooma court hearing Khalid’s bail plea, how the first conviction in the matter was of a Hindu person thereby demolishing the myth that the investigation was biased against Khalid, a Muslim.
“It was argued that IO is communal. It is very unfortunate. Investigating agency is not of a particular person but a State. We have to reach out to the same investigating agency if we have a problem. The first conviction in the Delhi riots case was of a Hindu,” the SPP said.
He was referring to the conviction of one Dinesh Yadav who was found guilty of looting and setting house of a Muslim family ablaze.
Khalid has been booked for offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in relation to the investigation into the northeast Delhi riots of 2020.
Prasad in his arguments today, also responded to the submissions of Khalid’s counsel Trideep Pais who had referred to the movie Trial of the Chicago 7 to highlight treatment of State witnesses.
“He has argued substantially on 17 points and the first argument was that he wants his application to be decided by reference to a web series. He wants the matter to be decided on the basis of what happened in Family Man and The Trial of Chicago 7. It is very unfortunate. People have died. You want media hype and to make headlines,” SPP Prasad said.
Prasad said Umar’s counsel referred to such web series as they were popular, rather than arguing on law. He added that the web series Grahan was left out as it is on the 1984 anti-sikh riots.
On the contention that a witness was ‘cooked up’, Prasad said “when someone makes deviations then it is natural. Doesn’t mean witness is not credible.“
The SPP stressed that Khalid was involved in the conspiracy from the beginning while also stating that there was an effort to cover up the same.
“When an FIR was registered on March 6, there are messages on record saying we will move from WhatsApp to Signal,” the SPP said.
The hearing is in progress.
Source: Barandbench
