NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought written submissions from Delhi Police on riots accused Asif Iqbal Tanha's plea alleging leakage of content of charge sheets to media before cognisance was taken by the concerned court.
Justice Mukta granted two weeks' time to police to give its written submissions and listed the matter for further hearing on September 8.
Tanha, a Jamia Millia Islamia University student, had moved the high court last year, alleging misconduct by police officials in leaking his disclosure statement in the main charge sheet, recorded by the probe agency during the investigation of a case relating to northeast Delhi riots, to the media even before cognisance was taken by the concerned court.
Following orders by the court, Delhi police conducted a comprehensive enquiry on the allegations of leakage and submitted its report in a sealed cover.
In its status report, the police said that the enquiry could not establish how the details of investigation into a Delhi riots case were shared with media and no prejudice has been caused to Tanha in his exercise of right to free and fair trial.
Tanha, in his petition, said he was aggrieved by various publications reporting that he has confessed to orchestrating the Delhi riots and alleged that he was coerced to sign certain papers in the effective custody of police.
He had contended that the action of two media houses in placing contents from charge sheet in the media violated the programme code.
Tanha, who was arrested in May 2020, was released from jail in June after the high court granted him bail in the riots case on larger conspiracy.
The police had alleged that Tanha, a resident of Abul Fazal Enclave in Shaheen Bagh, was a member of the Students Islamic Organization and was part of the Jamia Coordination Committee which spearheaded protests against the new citizenship law.