Enough material to proceed against Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam: Court on chargesheet

New delhi: A trial court here on Tuesday noted that "there is sufficient material to proceed" against accused persons namely former JNU students Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and alleged SIM card seller Faizan Khan in connection with a case related to the "larger conspiracy" behind the Delhi riots that occurred in February this year.

The almost 1000-page supplementary chargesheet was filed on Sunday before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat where the three accused have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and several sections of Indian Penal Code.

"The sanction for prosecution under Section 45 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 for offences under Sections 13, 16, 17, 18 of the said Act has been filed," ASJ Rawat said. However, he added that sanction under Section 196 CrPC is stated to be pending and would be placed as and when the same is received from the competent authority.

Charges under Sections 124A, 153A, 109, 120B of IPC have also been "deferred for the want of requisite sanction."

In his order, ASJ Rawat noted that since counsels for Khalid and Imam have submitted that the accused were already present in the hearing through videoconferencing, no summons need to be issued to them, however, a summons was issued to accused Faizan Khan, who is currently on bail, to appear on December 22.

On the issue of supplying the chargesheets to the accused, the court said that since the issue of supplying a hardcopy of the chargesheets has been challenged before the Delhi High Court, which had stayed the trial in the case, the three accused "shall be supplied softcopies in the form of a pen drive of the entire chargesheet including the supplementary chargesheet," while the softcopies of the supplementary chargesheet will be provided to the other 15 accused through a pendrive.