NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response from the jail authorities on a plea by activist Sharjeel Imam, currently in custody in a 2020 northeast Delhi riots case, seeking access to research material which he claimed to have stored on a pen drive to complete his PhD.
Imam has sought access to research material on a pen drive using a standalone computer inside the prison premises, without any internet connectivity and under the supervision of Tihar jail staff.
Justice Sanjeev Narula noted the submission and directed the jail authorities to file a status report in the matter by November 2, when the court will further hear the matter.
During the hearing, Imam's counsel told the court that he was in custody since January 2020 and was in the final year of his PhD at the time of his arrest.
“His synopsis has been approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU),” he told the court.
The special public prosecutor for Delhi Police said the State has not opposed the plea even before the trial court, and that only the jail authorities had objected to the pen drive and not to books before the trial court.
“The prayer can be allowed under the supervision of jail authorities if the accused is ready to show the material he was seeking to access,” the prosecutor told the court.
The judge noted the submission and directed the jail authorities to seek instruction on the issue.
Imam was arrested on August 25, 2020, and booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for being one of the "masterminds" of the February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi that left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.
The case under the anti-terror UAPA law concerns the alleged "larger conspiracy" behind the 2020 riots. The violence erupted during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, and the National Register of Citizens.