Mehmood Pracha moves Delhi Sessions Court against refusal to interfere with raids conducted by Delhi Police

Advocate Mehmood Pracha today moved a Delhi Sessions Court against an order passed by the lower court refusing to interfere with the raids conducted by the Delhi Police at his office. .During the hearing, President of the Patiala House Court Bar Association RK Wadhwa suggested that a local commissioner be appointed to seal the computer/laptop containing the data sought by the Delhi Police to prevent any tampering..Before any Magistrate, they can take what they want, Wadhwa stated..Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana, however, refused to pass any order, including that of a stay on the search warrant, in the absence of the prosecution."I have no reason to disagree with you but I will pass an order only after hearing them," Judge Rana said..The matter was accordingly posted for hearing tomorrow morning..Earlier this year, a raid at Pracha's office was undertaken by the Police in connection with an FIR alleging that he had tutored a witness to initiate a false Delhi Riots case..Today, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dr Pankaj Sharma had refused to pass any directions in Pracha's application highlighting issues of lawyer-client confidentiality breach.."The objections raised by the applicant are baseless. Let the search warrant be executed in accordance with law subject to safeguards as per expect opinion", the Court had stated in its order..The Court had held that as per expert opinion, target data could be stored/copied/retrieved in a pendrive/memory device without any interference with other data, therefore ruling out the possibility of evidentiary vulnerabilities..It also said that collection of evidence was intrinsic to the investigation and hands of the investigators could not be tied to prevent them from collecting evidence..[Mehmood Pracha police raids] Court or accused can't dictate how evidence is to be collected: Delhi Court refuses to interfere