No video footage on record to prove police allegations: Devangana's lawyer to court
New delhi: Pinja Tod activist and UAPA accused Devangana Kalita told a trial court on Friday that the "allegations against her are not only false but insidious in nature," as she asked police provide her video evidence showing her culpability in an alleged "larger conspiracy" behind the Delhi riots that took place in February.
Kalita's lawyer Adit Pujari, while arguing for the former's bail before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat, submitted that the Delhi Police has not provided any video footage showing her client indulging in any form of rioting or violence or instigating other women for the same, as spelt out in the charge sheet against her.
"When there are protests in any part of Delhi, there will be policemen holding cameras…a tender to record videos during the anti-CAA protests were given to one Prem Singh," Pujari argued, adding that, "However, police does not want to place the same on record due to their verbose witness statements."
The counsel also questioned as to why CCTV footage implicating Kalita in the case wasn't available near the Jafrabad Metro Station. "There are videos available with journalists who were there during the protests which does not prove the prosecution's allegations" he claimed.
Pujari further went on to point out the discrepancies in the conversations on police's internal WhatsApp group where he told the court that prosecution has indulged in "selective disclosure" of messages where few chats were deleted in order to show "a group of women from Jahangirpuri were conducting violence."
"The SBops WhatsApp group is not mischievous but it is insidious…they were constantly monitoring the 300 women brought from Jahangirpuri and they know about messages about another kind of protest but they are not producing it on record," Pujari submitted.
The counsel also asked as to why the police didn't arrest the women who had been brought from Jahangirpuri to Jafrabad at the spot itself if they saw them taking to violence. "All of the Delhi Police cannot be scared to arrest them," Pujari argued, adding that "there is not one acid injury as claimed by the prosecution in
Jafrabad."
Stating that it was "a prima facie case where his client deserves to be granted bail," Pujari ended his arguments by submitting, "This is not the case where these women need to be kept in jail under a terrorist charge, they should be called as witnesses…a protest is not a conspiracy with protesters holding candles on one side of the road."
