Delhi Police Chargesheet Reads Like Script Of 'Family Man' Series; Communal Narrative Given To CAA Protests: Umar Khalid In Bail Hearing

Seeking bail in the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case involving charges under UAPA, student activist Umar Khalid's lawyer argued before a Delhi Court that the entire charge-sheet filed by Delhi Police in FIR 59/2020 reads like a script of Amazon Prime show 'Family Man', having no evidence to support the allegations.Senior Advocate Trideep Pais argued before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat that the chargesheet makes rhetorical allegations against Khalid, terming him the "veteran of sedition" without any factual basis. The hyperbolic allegations in the chargesheet "reads like a 9 PM new script of one of those shouting news-channels" and are reflective of the "fertile imagination" of the investigating officer, the lawyer argued.Pais also argued that the police has attempted to give a communal narrative to the protests organized by Khalid against the Citizenship Amendment Act."Please understand, he's not writing the script of Family Man. He is writing a chargesheet," submitted Pais.He added "This is the kind of stuff which is read and peddled, the creation of public opinion in order to substitute the lack of evidence to carry out your objective of unfairly prosecute people when you have no material to do so."Prosecution Tailor Made Statements To Suit The Situation: PaisPais started with submitting that the chargesheet conclusively showed that there was no crime on the date the complaint was filed. He also said that the prosecution's case relies on a clip from news agency, which did not even have the full video of the speech alleged to be seditious. It may be recalled that on the last hearing date, Pais had argued that the Delhi Police's case was based on truncated clips of Khalid's speech given at Amaravati telecasted by Republic TV and News18, which were in turn based on an edited video tweeted by BJP leader Amit Malviya."There is nothing in that speech which is leading to lawless action, sedition, hatred or any illegality of any sort. Having said that, by the time they took the trouble of going to Amravati and take the speech, they made 18 arrests," Pais submitted.Coming on the aspect of there being inconsistent statements given by witnesses, Pais submitted that a protected witness gave contrary statements in the two FIRs registered against Umar Khalid including FIR 59/2020 and FIR 101/2020."He makes two statements in each FIR. On 21 May, 2020, he is unaware of January 2020. But on July 29, he not only speaks of it but he says he goes inside PFI office. Then he makes a statement before a Magistrate that he didn't go inside. Then he comes back and makes a statement that he was waiting outside," he argued.Arguing that such statements are inconsistent in order to meet the test under UAPA, Pais submitted that three people meeting and going inside an office is not a Conspiracy. "This is a flavour of the kind of statements your honour will see. It is tailor made to suit the situation," he submitted.Rhetorical Observations In ChargesheetCalling the contents of the chargesheet as rhetorical observations by the officer, Pais said that usage of words like "a veteran of sedition" suggests it to be a script of a news channel "Is this how chargesheets are written? It seems like a script of some news channel. Where did they get this from?" Pais argued."This reads like a 9 PM news script like those shouting news channels. Those news channels say anything they want. They want to give a slant, they'll give it. Absolutely no responsibility," he added Delhi Police chargesheet against #UmarKhalid "reads like a 9PM news script like those shouting news channels". Terms like "veteran of sedition" used against him - lawyer Trideep Pais argues in Khalid's bail hearing in #DelhiRiots case. https://t.co/pgfh1KIgpV— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) September 3, 2021 He also argued that the Delhi Police relied on the alleged slogan "Bharat Tere Tukde Honge Inshallah Inshallah" from the 2016 chargesheet registered against him in JNU sedition case in the present chargesheet concerning larger conspiracy in the Delhi riots."What happened in 2016 was that there was a poetry session. It was later termed as sedition. Nowhere was it ever alleged that "Bharat Tere Tukde Honge" was ever said by Umar Khalid. Transcript of 2016 chargesheet is here," he argued at the outset.He argued that Delhi Police alleges in the Delhi Riots conspiracy case that Khalid had made "tukde tukde" comment at JNU in 2016, whereas in the 2016 case chargesheet there is no allegation that Khalid made the "tukde tukde" comments.#UmarKhalid bail hearing :His lawyer Trideep Pais argues that Delhi Police alleges in the Delhi Riots conspiracy case that Khalid had made "tukde tukde" comment at JNU in 2016, whereas in the 2016 case there is no allegation that Khalid made the "tukde tukde" comments. https://t.co/mVQyMEju2s— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) September 3, 2021 Furthermore, reading out contents of chargesheet stating "he was still bearing a facade of secular, progressive...

Delhi Police Chargesheet Reads Like Script Of 'Family Man' Series; Communal Narrative Given To CAA Protests: Umar Khalid In Bail Hearing

Nupur Thapliyal

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