Court warns Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, others not to delay Delhi Riots trial

A Delhi Court recently warned the accused in the Delhi riots conspiracy case including Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Tahir Hussain, Asif Iqbal and Ishrat Jahan not to delay the trial by seeking unnecessary adjournments.

In an order passed on October 4, Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai noted that during the previous hearing, it had been decided that the accused would be heard on the matter of charge on a day-to-day basis. It had also been decided that the counsel for the accused would arrive at a consensus on the order in which they would address arguments.

However, when the matter was taken up last week, the counsel were not ready to commence arguments, which drew the ire of the Court.

"It is surprising that on the last date of hearing the court specifically noted that the matter shall be heard on charge on day to day basis and after considering the submissions of the Ld. Counsel for the accused persons that they will make consensus among themselves for addressing arguments in a particular sequence and with their consent only, the matter was fixed today for arguments on charge but still none of the counsel is ready to address arguments", the Court observed.

Therefore, it proceeded to warn the accused not to delay the trial further.

"The court sees that more than sufficient time was given but still Ld. Counsel for the accused persons are not ready today. The accused persons are warned that the matter should not get delayed further unnecessarily on their part and any delay will be viewed by the court seriously", the Court stated in its order.

The accused in the case are Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar, Natasha Narwal, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Tahir Hussain, Khalid Saifi, Isharat Jahan, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Mohd Saleem Khan, Athar Khan and Faizan Khan.

The Police have invoked stringent provisions under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against the accused.

The Court had started hearing arguments on charge after Delhi Police said that investigation with regard to all the accused are complete.

On October 4, counsel for Tahir Hussain sought more time to go through the material as he was engaged to be Hussain's counsel only recently.

The counsel for Asif Iqbal Tanha submitted that although she had said that all the counsel would arrive at a consensus as to the order in which the arguments on charge would be addressed, the same could not be done due to personal difficulty. However, she assured the Court that counsel for Hussain would start the arguments on the next date and that she would follow after him. She further submitted that she would not seek any adjournments.

Counsel for the Umar Khalid submitted that he will address arguments after the completion of arguments on behalf of accused Tahir Hussain.

Sharjeel Imam's lawyer submitted that if he is given reasonable, he will not seek any adjournment and will be ready to address arguments.

Ishrat Jahan's counsel said that he will address arguments at the end as Jahan's role was not much.

After expressing its disappointment with the state of affairs, the Court decided to post the matter for hearing on October 21 at 12.00 noon.

The counsel for Tahir Hussain will commence arguments.

"It is again made clear that counsel for other accused persons should make themselves ready for their arguments as soon as the arguments on behalf of the accused Tahir Hussain are finished and no adjournment will be granted to them on any ground. Accused Tahir Hussain and Salim Khan be produced physically in the court," the Court's order stated.

[Read Order]