Delhi riots accused have no right to seek status of probe before arguments on charge: Delhi Police to Delhi Court

The Delhi Police on Tuesday told a court that the accused in the 2020 Delhi Riots conspiracy case have no right to ask for information on the status of the investigation before arguments on the charges against them begin..Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad said that there is no provision in law that grants the accused the right to demand such a relief.Therefore, the applications moved by the accused on this aspect should be dismissed at the threshold, he argued.“They want to enter through backdoor without mentioning the provision of law. Something which is not permissible, something which cannot be entertained by this court, they want… How can these prayers be entertained when there is no provision in law? If there was a provision then everyone would have supported it. And that is the reason each application fails to disclose any provision of law,” Prasad contended..Prasad added that none of the judgments cited by the accused give the court the power to entertain an application in this manner. The right to know the status of the investigation rests only with the court, he argued. He also asserted that such applications are being filed by the accused only to derail the trial.“The accused or an applicant can come to court with any piece of paper but that cannot be part of the judicial record. This piece of paper has to be as per law. If the law does not give them the right to file such an application and delay the proceeding, then that application has to be thrown out at the threshold... These applications are nothing but an effort to derail the trial. This is a right with the court. Now they want to pull it out with an elastic band. They want to somehow get a right which they don't have… Accused cannot hold the gun to the court and say, 'ask prosecution what is the stage of the investigation and conduct the trial as it suits me.' This is precisely what they are doing," the SPP said..The SPP was arguing before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of the Karkardooma court.He was opposing applications filed by accused persons including Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Devangana Kalita and several others seeking to know the status of the investigation in the Delhi riots cases filed against them under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The applicants said that this information should be given to them before the court starts hearing arguments on the charges against them.Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid and some others accused supported these applications.It was the defence’ case that they need to know whether the investigation against them is complete before they reveal their defence while arguing on charges.The counsel appearing for the accused (defence) raised an apprehension that the prosecution may file supplementary chargesheets to fill gaps in the investigation which may be pointed out by the accused during the arguments..SPP Prasad today highlighted that the court had said on August 5 that it would start hearing day-to-day arguments in the case from September 11. Yet, the accused filed their applications on the day of the hearing to delay the trial, the SPP contended.“They have waited for good 40 days to come with this application. The matter was fixed for day-to-day arguments. If they had a grievance, they could have challenged it before the High Court but they waited till the last moment and now they want to create a mayhem," he argued..The Court heard the SPP’s submissions in part and listed the case for further arguments on September 22.