Police say lawyers' presser misleading, Pracha asks why raid footage being hidden
new delhi: After several senior advocates such as Prashant Bhushan held a press conference in defence of advocate Mehmood Pracha, who is fighting a number of cases in the north-east Delhi riots cases, with respect to the raids conducted at his office by the Special Cell, the Delhi Police has claimed that the press conference was
"misleading".
According to police, the factual position is that Mehmood Pracha exerted all his might to obstruct and prevent the Court-mandated search and seizure. "He could have allowed the search to progress and conclude, as in the case of other search warrant issued concurrently in this matter for a search at the office of Advocate Javed Ali," Delhi Police press statement read.
However, advocate Mehmood Pracha told Millennium Post, "The very fact that they have to release a press statement like this shows that who is guilty…they are trying to defend the indefensible."
As per city police, Pracha kept provoking the search team, which included independent public witnesses, into some kind of violent confrontation, which was assiduously avoided. The gross misconduct of the suspect, along with the entire video recording, has been reported to the Court while submitting an execution report. "It is also worth mentioning that Mehmood Pracha recently rushed to Sessions Court to get an interlocutory order passed by the Duty MM in the same matter overturned. However, Pracha's plea was outrightly dismissed by the Court," Delhi Police claimed in their press note.
To this, the lawyer said, "Who has done wrong or right will be crystal clear when the videos are released in the public domain…so who is hiding them?…why are they shying away from giving them?"
Police said that the press note, shared in defence of Mehmood Pracha, is an insidious attempt to mislead and deceive the citizenry, who being unfamiliar with the actual legal provisions, are taken in by the vocation and credentials of a person peddling the falsehood.
He also said that regarding the court order cited in the press release, "the less said the better". "They are citing a judgment without disclosing the title of the case," he said. The police had cited excerpts from what they claimed to be a court order and said in cases of suspected illegal activities, client-lawyer privilege cannot be claimed.
Meanwhile, lawyers are planning a march from the Delhi High Court to the Supreme Court in protest against the raids today (Friday).
"As of now, we have close to 1,500 signatures, while lawyers can sign the petition till January 22 itself. We will then do a gherao of the Supreme Court and also handover the petition to CJI SA Bodbe," lawyer Bahadur Abbas Naqvi, an aide of Pracha told Millennium Post. The petition has asked the removal of the judge who gave permission to raid Pracha's office.
