NEW DELHI: The high court on Wednesday asked the Delhi Police to respond to a plea by former Congress municipal councillor Ishrat Jahan, booked under the anti-terror law UAPA in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi in February, challenging an order extending the time for completing the investigation by 60 more days.
Justice Suresh Kumar Kait, who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, issued notice to the Delhi Police and asked it to file written arguments within 10 days. The court also allowed Jahan's counsel to file written arguments and some additional documents related to the case.
Additional Public Prosecutor Amit Chadha accepted the notice on behalf of the Police and sought time to file the reply after which the court listed the matter for further hearing on July 7. Jahan, who was arrested on February 26, has challenged the trial court’s June 15 order granting 60-day extension to the police to complete its probe against her and activist Khalid Saifi.
The court was informed that Saifi had allegedly travelled outside India and met persons, including fugitive Zakir Naik, controversial Islamic preacher, to get funds for spreading his agenda and the investigation regarding this required more time.
HC transfers pleas on CCTV to another bench
The high court said the two pleas seeking setting up of an SIT on northeast Delhi riots and directions to the Delhi Police to preserve the CCTV footage of the violence would be heard by another bench, of the Chief Justice before whom similar petitions are pending.
A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh was informed that various petitions seeking similar relief are already pending before a bench headed by Chief Justice DN Patel in view of the Supreme Court directions. The bench said the two petitions be listed along with other riots related pleas before the bench headed by the Chief Justice on July 13.