New Delhi, Jun 5 The Delhi High Court on Friday lifted its earlier stay on framing of charges in the alleged larger conspiracy case related to the 2020 riots and allowed the trial court to pass a final order.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna vacated the court's order while dismissing a plea by accused Devangana Kalita seeking direction to the police to provide her certain videos and WhatsApp chats in relation to the case.
After the pronouncement of the verdict, Kalita's counsel urged the judge to continue the operation of the stay order for the time being, stating that she would approach the Supreme Court with her grievance.
"I won't be able to do that," Justice Krishna responded.
The court, however, allowed a separate petition by Kalita and permitted her to inspect the unrelied-upon documents in the case under the anti-terror law UAPA.
Kalita had moved the high court in 2023, claiming that Delhi Police had commissioned certain persons to record the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in February 2020 and the footage should be supplied to her before the trial court proceeds to hear the arguments on the framing of charges.
She had contended that the footage would show that she was protesting peacefully.
Besides the video footage, she had also sought the "entire WhatsApp chat" of a group, alleging that "selective extracts" were being used against the petitioner.
In the judgment, the court stated that all the evidence against Kalita, which is being relied upon by the prosecution, along with the chargesheet, has already been provided to her in compliance with the law, and the entire footage of the riots relevant to the petitioner has also been given.
The court said that only such communication, information, chats of police official groups and WhatsApp groups, which are neither relied upon nor relevant, have not been shared as they may contain sensitive information or privileged communication that cannot be disclosed.
"Hence, the WhatsApp Group chats etc. pertaining to the police officials and their activities which had not been relied upon were held to be not required to be supplied under Section 207 Cr.P.C," the court held.
"In so far as the documents pertaining to other accused, and the supply of the WhatsApp chats, are concerned, these are not relied upon against the petitioner, for which she has a right to seek the List/Inspection, a right which has already been availed by the petitioner. These documents have been rightly denied in the chargesheet," it added.
With respect to the supply of certain "relevant" CCTV footage, the court noted that as per the prosecution, the footage cannot be given because further investigations was still ongoing and certain accused were still to be apprehended.
Invoking the right to fair trial, the court nonetheless permitted Kalita to inspect the unrelied evidence, and said transparency in the judicial proceedings has to be ensured even in cases involving terror offences.
The court said it expected that the appropriate facility would be provided to the accused to facilitate the inspection.
At the same time, it is expected that Kalita shall not unduly delay the inspection as it would only delay the trial, which is neither in the interest of the prosecution or the accused, it said.
On September 12, 2024, the court had passed an interim order in the matter and asked the trial court not to pass final order on framing of charges in the case in the alleged larger conspiracy case under anti-terror law UAPA.
Student activists Kalita, Natasha Narwal, Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and several others have also been booked under various FIRs in relation to the riots in the Northeast Delhi, which left 53 people dead and over 700 injured in February 2020.
