Umar Khalid closes submissions, 'Prosecution should be ashamed'
New Delhi: Closing his submissions for former JNU student leader and anti-CAA activist Umar Khalid's bail, his lawyer, senior advocate Trideep Pais on Wednesday went on to discredit the testimony of more of the prosecution's key witnesses in the UAPA case related to the Delhi riots — this time invoking The Trial of the Chicago 7 — a film based on a real case of how prosecutors charged protesters for a riot that they knew was initiated by the police in Chicago, 1968.
Khalid and several others have been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a stringent anti-terror law, and are accused of being the "masterminds" of the riots which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.
Arguing his bail plea before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat, senior advocate Trideep Pais, representing Khalid, said that the witness statements were "inconsistent with each other, and will not stand the test of law."
He read out a statement of one of the witnesses and said, "Even a 12-year-old would know this is a fabrication. They (prosecution) should be ashamed. Not even a shred of physical evidence. He added, I recently watched a movie called 'The Trial of Chicago 7' where witnesses of the State had already planned to be the witnesses of the State.
The lawyer was addressing the allegation levelled by the police against Khalid that he and his father were present at a protest organized by the Welfare Party of India at Jantar Mantar, wherein children and women were taken in buses.
At the outset, Pais said he would not even get into whether his client or his family were present at this protest site — let alone directed people to be there. He argued instead, "I am not even admitting to that but advocacy that persons should protest against CAA, how is that an offence?".
Pais went on to say that the police' thinking unravels itself when one sees the statements produced in the chargesheet. He argues that the police first record a preliminary statement and somehow the witnesses find additional details months after this for their statement before the Magistrate. He went on to say that when they are not satisfied, they stumble upon another witness saying the same thing.
He also said that the police had added Popular Front of India's name in the mix just to make things more complicated. He said the police have made these allegations without ascertaining whether the events actually took place. He also questioned whether the police had found a single woman who said she was bussed in for protests at Jantar Mantar.
Moreover, Pais also ridiculed the prosecution's theory that Umar and his father knew all the 250 women there personally.
In what has been one of the longest bail hearings in the case so far, Pais began arguments on August 23. He has meticulously taken the court through the chargesheet filed by the police — including the inconsistencies within it. Now, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad will commence the arguments on the behalf of police on January 5, 2022.
The Delhi Police had earlier said that the bail plea has no merit and that it will demonstrate the prima facie case against him before the court by referring to the charge sheet filed in the case. In the last hearing, Khalid, through his lawyer, said that advocacy against a law like the Citizenship Amendment Act CAA is not a crime and that the police pressured the witnesses to give statements.
