Court refuses to accept allegations of accused being coerced to sign docus

new delhi: A Delhi court has refused to accept the allegations that a key accused arrested and chargesheeted under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was coerced to sign documents in police custody. The allegations, levelled by prominent anti-CAA activist Shadab Ahmed, highlight that police had purportedly forced him to sign documents while he was in police custody between August 24 and 26 without being allowed to read the contents of the

documents.

Shadab has been named by the police in their chargesheet in the "main conspiracy" case related to the riots that name only anti-CAA protesters and no one from the pro-CAA side. The February riots had killed at least 53, of whom over 40 were Muslims and injured scores of others.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed the application, saying during Ahmad's police custody remand, he had physically met his counsel and also telephonically talked to him and hence it was highly improbable that he would not disclose such a thing to his lawyer.

"Moreover, the application, filed on September 16, also lacks material particulars like number of pages, date when signatures were taken, etc," the court said in its order passed on September 19.

The application said that Ahmad's counsel was able to conduct a legal meeting through video conferencing on September 2, during which he disclosed the alleged incident. It further sought that any document produced with the signature of the accused before the court or any other court be deemed as "forged and fabricated".

Shadab's lawyer further submitted that his client was in COVID-19 quarantine after being sent to judicial custody and hence his lawyer was able to meet him only on September 2, when he disclosed about the alleged

incident.