2020 Delhi riots: No judgment gives accused right to know probe status, says prosecution

While Prasad had earlier said he would argue for two hours, he concluded the arguments within a few minutes, questioning the maintainability of the applications filed by the accused. “The applicants can’t ask the court to create a special procedure in the garb of rights of the accused,” said Prasad.

Advocates Sowjhanya Shankaran and Adit S Pujari, representing the accused, argued that there were legal sources of power provided to the accused to ask about the status of the investigation. “When police are not answering the question, this court and the accused have the right to ask them,” said Shankaran.

While Prasad said the defence must rebut his claims and prove their applications are maintainable, Pujari argued that the prosecution must answer a question that the court had asked earlier regarding the completion of the investigation.

“How can the prosecution not answer a question by the court saying that is the conspiracy even over,” said Pujari.

The matter was being heard in Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat’s court through video conferencing. It is now listed on October 3. All the accused are allowed to appear through video conference.

A total of 17 people are accused in the case filed under the UAPA. Three of them, Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha, are out on bail. The other accused are Tahir Hussain, Umar Khalid, Khalid Saifi, Isharat Jahan, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Saleem Malik, Mohd. Saleem Khan, Athar Khan, Safoora Zargar, Sharjeel Imam and Faizal Khan.