Delhi riots: High Court reserves order on Ishrat Jahan's plea against probe extension
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its order on a plea by former Congress municipal councillor Ishrat Jahan, challenging the trial court's order to extend the time of investigation against her in a north-east Delhi riots-related case, for which she had been booked under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA.
Advocate Lalit Valecha, who appeared for Jahan, sought setting aside the trial court's order, saying it was erroneous, bad in law and wrong on facts and was against the democratic and fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Jahan's advocate contended that the prosecutor had not applied his mind while filing the application in the trial court.
Jahan, in her plea, claimed this exercise on the prosecution's behalf is only to subvert and defeat the right of the petitioner to seek regular and statutory bail under the CrPC. The order deserves to be set aside on this ground alone. Speedy and fair investigation are fundamental tenets of the criminal justice system , the plea argued.
The Delhi Police opposed Jahan's petition even as Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra and Amit Prasad argued over who is to represent the Delhi Police in the riots-related cases. Prosecutors of the Delhi government and those appointed by the L-G have been in a tiff over representation for weeks now and the high court has already reserved its order in the representation matter in another riots-related case pertaining to Faisal Farooq.
The high court allowed both the counsel to argue and submit their respective status reports in the matter as it had made clear in an earlier hearing that it was not going to enter into the controversy of which lawyer will represent the police. However, Delhi Police counsel contended that the high court should not intervene in the matter as far as the order of the additional sessions judge, extending the time to probe the case, is concerned as there was no infirmity in it. Jahan has been in custody since February 26.
