New Delhi: The Delhi Police Thursday contended before the Delhi High Court that a trial court order, discharging JNU student Sharjeel Imam and student activists Asif Iqbal Tanha and Safoora Zargar in a 2019 Jamia Nagar violence case, was perverse and unsustainable in law as it cannot indulge in conducting mini trial at the stage of framing of charges.
The police said at the stage of framing of charges, a trial court cannot indulge in conducting a mini trial by determining the credibility of the evidence as to whether it would warrant a conviction or not.
The submissions were made before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma who reserved the verdict on the police’s plea after hearing arguments of the lawyers for Delhi Police and 11 people, who were discharged by the trial court, for two-and-a half hours.
The case concerns the violence that erupted after a clash between police and people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the Jamia Nagar area here in December 2019.
The trial court had in its February 4 order discharged 11 people in the case while holding that they were made “scapegoats” by police and that dissent has to be encouraged, not stifled.
Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, representing the Delhi Police, argued that conviction can take place purely on testimony of police witness and as such the trial court is in error in holding that there is no evidence which can convict the respondent persons.
He said non-consideration or selective consideration of third charge sheet for the reasons stated in the order is fatal and makes the order
perverse.