New Delhi: Arguing for being discharged in a case related to the north-east Delhi riots last year, suspended AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain has refuted video evidence submitted by the prosecution against him by saying the person who shot the video had suddenly disappeared and by showing more videos where Tahir is seen trying to save himself from rioters.
While the councillor's lawyer, Advocate Rizwan pleaded for these videos to be taken on record, the prosecution insisted that they were staged and asked why they did not show any rioting, following which Tahir said the prosecution was trying to deceive the court. The submissions came before Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhatt.
The prosecution maintained that Tahir was "not resisting but assisting" the rioters and that this was clear from the videos they had. However, Rizwan argued that the videos in fact showed his client trying to douse fires and not setting them. He added that the person who shot the video being used by the prosecution had not been made a witness.
To this, the prosecutor submitted that the person who had shot the video had moved residences and was untraceable. The prosecution, however, supported the video evidence, saying the person narrating the scenes in the video was a local and that the allegation against Tahir made in the video was "the opinion of the neighbourhood".
"Is the person who is commenting in the video saying the gospel truth? This person was not even made a witness by the police," Tahir's lawyer shot back.
The case is related to rioting near Hussain's house on a complaint by one Ajay Kumar Jha, who claimed to have been injured by the mob attacking allegedly from the terrace of Hussain's home on February 25.
Tahir's lawyers argued further that his client was, in fact, a victim of the riots and also showed several videos to the court, which showed him interacting with the area ACP and apprising them of the situation, Other videos showed mobs trying to force through his home as he resisted them. However, the prosecution dismissed these as "scheduled shoots".
He added that Tahir had never been in touch with co-accused and former JNU student leader Umar Khalid.