Thread by @barandbench

Delhi Court to continue with the bail hearing of Umar Khalid in an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act case related to #DelhiRiots.

Read details on previous hearing here:

#UmarKhalid #DelhiCourt #DelhiRiots

barandbench.com/news/litigatio…

Hearing commences.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiCourt #DelhiRiots

Senior Advocate Trideep Pai: On the date of registration of FIR, there existed 750 FIRs registered well before.
With respect to each incident of violence be it serious, of a death. Be it less serious. First submission was that there was no occasion to register the FIR.

Pai: An FIR is registered as per Lalitha Kumari on the language of the complaint but there is certainly an underlying crime. Veracity is not subject matter. The chargesheet shows that there was, in fact, no crime.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pai: The video relied upon was reported by news agencies which was tweeted by a politician. I have played the speech; with the greatest respect I submit that there is no illegality in that speech.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pai: In this case, the burden of proof remains on the prosecution. One of the biggest theories is that there was a conspiracy on 8 January. The protected witness, Saturn, either speaks under pressure or with a forked tongue.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pai: The witness has made a different, inconsistent statement in another FIR you cannot take it seriously. You cannot put statements in water tight compartments.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pai: Reads out examination of protected witness under Section 161 CrPC dated 21 May.

"There is absolutely no reference to 08 Jan. This is where this instalment scheme of using statements against me begins.", says Pai.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais reads out another statement: He clearly says that he knows Khalid Saifi from before and has seen Umar Khalid on TV. How does he suddenly remember on 29 July in another FIR?

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: I was arrested in September. This statement came after the decision to arrest me. Until May, they had not thought of arresting me.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Senior Advocate Pais reads out statement dated 07 August: In his Section 161 he says, Umar Khalid and Khalid Saifi were already seated.

In his Section 164, he says he was made to wait outside.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais reads out witness statement dated 27 September:
They procured this statement right before arresting me. So, to sum up Saturn, he makes two statements in each FIR.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: 21st May 2020, he is blissfully unaware of 8 Jan. But in July, he not only speaks of it, but he also goes into the PFI office. Then he says in August, I did not go inside. Again, in September he says I was waiting outside.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: I will no longer labour on malice, malice is a given in this FIR. I am trying to transcend malice and tell your Honour, there is no way these statements are consistent with each other and meet the test under UAPA.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: Can we rely on this witness to keep a man in jail? Where he does not even remember this epic meeting that happened on 8 Jan. I will show witness after witness, this is what they have done.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: There is another very disturbing fact about this chargesheet.

All three materials are false. There is a public event, and you misquote it.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Sr. Advocate Pais: Second is, the chargesheet has statements but you as prosecution portray the rhetoric in your head which has no basis in statement or event.

"This is the fertile imagination of the police officer who drafted it."

Thirdly, procured witnesses like Saturn.

Senior Advocate Pais: They say in Amravati I give a भड़काऊ भाषण.

Your honour saw the video. There is a bunch of tame people sitting and listening to someone speak.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: First is, they misquote a public event, which is on record, but the prosecution is trying to portray it as terror. For this I’ll be showing two instances. One is the speech in Amravati.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: The second- screen shares chargesheet and reads out: “Umar Khalid, a veteran of sedition.” This is sounding like a script. Where are they getting this?

“Harbinger of the call- BHARAT TERE TUKDE TUKDE HONGE.” Yeh kahan se mila?

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: No quote document, no evidence to show that I made this statement. The whole basis of CAA protests is to BELONG TO THIS COUNTRY.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: in 2016, the same police station filed a chargesheet against me.

In 2016, there was a poetry reading session by a group of students who were broadly left, this was opposed by a group of students who were broadly right.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: This became a case of sedition. But nowhere was it ever alleged that “Bharat Tere Tukde Tukde Honge” by Umar Khalid.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais takes the Court through Khalid’s interview with Zee TV: Nowhere does it say “Bharat Tere Tukde Tukde Honge”.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais reads out the section of the chargesheet that is titled, “evidences against Umar Khalid”: Please come to what they enumerate as evidence against Umar Khalid.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: How did you produce, “Bharat Tere Tukde Honge”, in this chargesheet? It was not in the previous chargesheet.
If you were truthful, you would have annexed the previous chargesheet to this. 17,00 pages have been annexed, why not this? I am appalled.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: I want to show you where you can give proof for what you have said against me. You have not, because there is NONE. What I have shown you is a WHITE LIE.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: Now I will take you through the second point, the false rhetoric made in the chargesheet.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais reads out chargesheet: “After a roller coaster of secular progressive activism.. what we see of Umar Khalid in 2020 is unapologetic proponent of political Islamic extremism..” This reads like one of those screaming news channels.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais reads out chargesheet: “..previous brush with law, was clear in his mind that when Delhi will be thrown in fire, he shall be keeping a safe physical distance to create the perfect alibi if the conspiracy gets exposed..”

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pai remarks on the chargesheet: The last person who travelled with someone and got into his mind was VOLDEMORT FROM HARRY POTTER.

Mere mind mein ghus gaye?

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #DelhiCourt

Pais: This type of statement shapes public opinion by being picked up by irresponsible media. No matter what Your Honour says today, public opinion is being shaped.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots #DelhiCourt

Pais reads out chargesheet: “..with his intellectual acumen, he knew very well a large majority of Indian Muslims will never prescribe to the perverted definition of Islam being espoused by his disciple Sharjeel Imam..” Where is this from? Who said this?

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: this is the propaganda they want to peddle. And they have made me a criminal to peddle this propaganda.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: All the material highlighted in green sent to your Honour has no basis and cannot be relied upon for considering my bail. These portions were just added to create an idea in the mind of the public.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais reads out chargesheet: Not a single witness to back the statement “..for use of social media for large scale indoctrination and mobilisation of youths for Chakka Jaam as a protest against CAA. It was also decided that Masjids should be the focal point...”

#UmarKhalid

Pais: If there is basis for this statement, who is communal? If there is no basis for Masjid as focal point, who has given this a communal colour? Not me!

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: As we read on Islam is a bad word, Masjid is a bad word. Slowly slowly look what they are doing.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: If you are against the CAA, you support the unity of this country! But this chargesheet repeatedly paints them in a communal colour.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais continues reading the chargesheet: “..the unmistakebale hallmark a maturing Umar Khalid..”

Pais asks, “Yeh biography likh raha hai kya mera?”

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: Is he a crystal gazer? How does he know this about me, that I am maturing with age? How can such rubbish be written?

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: “The experience of the key conspirators from half baked successes and failures over the past two weeks made them realise that in order to achieve their true objectives there was a need for a gender cover and media cover…”

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: What is he trying to say? That woman can’t protest? Do movements of any kind have to be led by men?

Has a single woman said she was exploited for the purposes of the protest? Have they taken 161 statements from women?

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais continues reading, “should result in spilling of bloods of policemen.” No statement says this.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: No witness said that there was a strategic picking of blockade points. There is a constant effort to give it a communal colour, “..predominantly minority clusters where 24*7 sit in dharna were being held..”

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: He is not writing the script of Family Man. This is a chargesheet. Reads chargesheet, “..discloses association with rabid activists like Nadeem Khan..”

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pai: Reads chargesheet, “was all geared towards giving the protests a profound communal colour..” I’m sorry the only one giving communal colour is THIS.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: they have attempted to create public opinion in light of lack of evidence. You wouldn’t have to resort to this if you had evidence against me. 59 is a skeleton within which you can bring anything.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais reads chargesheet, “while his vision for political Islam was being propagated by small, committed Islamists using groups like MSJ, SOJ etc… a wider rainbow alliance having secular façade..”

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: Who has said it was a façade? Where is the proof? The movement WAS secular. The chargesheet is communal. What is the message the protestor is giving you? “I belong to this country, and I want to belong to this country.”

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: Reads chargesheet, “the ease and poise with which Umar Khalid was navigating both the ideologies indicate that this position in the overall power matrix was very, very close to the very top.”

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Pais: Where is he getting this? What is the top? How am I close to the top? Which witness has said this?

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Court: I have other matters. Can we continue on 6?

Senior Advocate Trideep Pais: I’ll continue whenever the Court will hear it.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots

Matter to continue on 6th, Monday.

#UmarKhalid #DelhiRiots