Thread by @LawBeatInd

BREAKING: A Special Bench of the Delhi High Court is to continue hearing Umar Khalid's bail plea post lunch at 2:15 today.

#umarkhalid #UAPA #DelhiHighCourt #DelhiRiots2020

Here is a recap of the last date of hearing

'Can't Hold A Mini Trial On Whether Or Not You Met Tahir Hussain, Khalid Saifi': Delhi High Court In Umar Khalid Bail Plea
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reports

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Hearing begins.
Ms. Sanya Kumar J. appears for Umar Khalid.
Chargesheet is being read out. Portion on secret meeting in Seelampur between Khalid and other co accused is being read out.

Ms. Kumar - not a single witness has called this meeting a "secret" meeting. That is an addition made by the chargesheet.

Statement of witness "Sierra" is being read out.

Witness was a man who would occasionally go to the office to provide tea and snacks

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reads out statement of another witness.

Kumar - your lordships will note that the statements of the witness are exactly identical.

Bhatnagar J. - So the statements corroborate each other?

Kumar - They are exactly identical in the way they describe the chain of events!

Kumar - These are S. 161 statements. The punctuation, the words used are identical. To have perfect recollection with the words is unnatural.

Bhatnagar J. - All this will be seen at the time of trial. Not at the stage of bail hearing

Kumar reads out statement of witness "ECHO"

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Kumar - Echo doesn't talk about any speech given by Umar Khalid in Seelampur in his sec. 161 CrPC statement.

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Kumar - the evidence of Echo is also hearsay in as much as he has not heard what was said in the meeting. He has only heard of the contents of the meeting from someone else.

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Like other witnesses, Echo also mentions that Natasha Narwal was present at the meeting. But CDR shows that she wasn't present that day in Seelampur.

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reads out S.164 statement of witness Delta

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This was a witness who was in constant touch with the police and who would tell the police of any plans to protest.

Kumar - the witness was informing the police since January 2019 of everything going on. He also informed the police that women were being instigated to stock up red chilli powder, sticks, etc to attack. Yet the police fails to take any action.

Kumar - Delta is a witness who has been in constant touch with the police. He told the police of Gulfisha asking women to keep knives, acid, red chilli powder, etc. But the police fails to take action.. also makes no mention of any speech by Khalid inciting any offence.

Kumar: He neither mentions Umar Khalid nor talks about the meeting in sec. 161 CrPC statement. In sec. 164 Statement, within a period of six days, not only does he name Umar but also says that he gave provocative speech. Just like other witnesses, no details, nothing to show....

....that the speech was provocative.

Mr. Trideep Pais, appears.

Pais - Sorry milords.

Takes over the arguments.

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Pais - milords the photos of this "secret" meeting have been taken from the Facebook account of a witness. This is a prosecution document and a conspitorial meeting. Would anyone who wanted to execute a conspiracy and take a selfie and put it on Facebook in this manner?

Pais reads out chargesheet, which states that the photo was taken by Syed Imran. Imran's phone was seized by the police and his Facebook data was downloaded.

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Pais - if this meeting is supposed to be "secret" and is a conspiracy, why would one take a picture of it and put it up on Facebook? Why would I tell a tea vendor or a biryani supplier my entire plan?

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Pais - the chargesheet also states that the police learnt of the secret meeting on 28th august. But the witness spoke about it in April! and other witnesses can be seen to have spoken about it before as well... the list is endless...
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Pais - Please see the manner in which the chargesheet has been presented... I am not relying on any document outside the chargesheet but the manner in which the chargesheet has been presented shows that it is a fabrication!
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Pais - Does the court jump to the conclusion that it was a Conspitorial meeting just because the chargesheet says so? Does the court not have even to look at the broad probabilities and see how nothing is disclosed? The impugned order reproduces the chargesheet allegations

Mridul J. - the point is whether a meeting was held or not? We have to look at the facts. the fact is there is a photo. The photo shows a meeting was held. We can't at this stage look at whether meeting was "secret" or "conspiratorial".

Mridul J. - some facts hide in plain sight! who is to say a conspiratorial meeting cant be held in a park! But we are not to look at any such facts. Whatever statements have been made by the witness, how much scrutiny can we put them through?

Pais - I don't place the witness statements for your lordship to discard or admit them! I only place it to show your lordships the picture from my point of view!

Mridul J.- You dont want us to look at the picture!

Mridul J. - You dont want us to look at the Facebook picture!

Pais - Milords that was a very nice pun.

Mridul J. - you are going into questions like why did Michelangelo paint the last supper? We are not on those facts at all.

Mridul J. - Let us go back to the Evidence Act. What is a conspiracy? Even if one of the co conspirators acts independently, it needn't be at your behest, it would still be held against you! that is the law!

Mridul J. - We just hope there is some end in sight! Alright we won't ask you any more questions!

Pais - No Milords in reading Watali sometime was taken

Pais: now comes the allegation of 17 February 2020. Your lordships have seen this in great detail. Your lordships had seen this speech in Amravati. This doesn't give rise to any offences alleged against me.

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Justice Mridul: Speech is in bad taste, doesn't make it a terrorist act. You have made your point. If the case of the prosecution is premised on how offensive the speech was, that by itself won't constitute an offence. We will give them the opportunity.

Pais - milords S.161 statement of witnesses "James" and "Bond"
Mridul J. - Mr. Prasad were these names picked out of a hat?.... No because "Echo" and "Bravo" we understand is aviation parlance. But "James" "Bond" "Romeo" "Juliet"...Only one missing is Roger

Mridul J.: It may tantamount to defamation but it will not tantamount to a terrorist activity.

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Pais now refers to statements of other witness named James.

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Pais now on the allegation of "flurry of calls" made.

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Pais: they are not telling you how much members of whatsapp group spoke to each other on previous days. They are just giving sample of one day. No witness. This is just an inference.

#DelhiHighCourt #UmarKhalid #UAPA #DelhiRiots

Mridul J.: The difficulty is that this matter has taken more time than we envisaged it would. Insofar as inviting our attention to chargesheet, you've done. Now only judgments are left.

Mridul J. : It's impossible for this bench to assemble everyday. We'll have to hear this after vacations now..We can only have it in the reopening now.

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Mridul J. - We are hearing this matter on a daily basis. We know your client is in custody but so are so many others! they are in preventive custody! We have been adjourning their matters on a daily basis! Everyday! We cant do this on a daily basis.

Mridul J. - The prosecution hasn't even begun yet! We have to give them the same amount of time we give you to respond to the extensive arguments raised by you. They haven't even begun Mr. Pais.

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Matter listed for concluding arguments on behalf of the accused on July 4, at 2:15