Witnesses cooked up statements in Delhi riots UAPA case: Umar Khalid tells court

Pais told the court that Umar only sent four messages to the WhatsApp group, Delhi Protests Support Group (DPSG), which is now under investigation by the authorities, who claimed the group was used to plan the riots.

“Only four messages have been sent by me to this group since it started. It’s not like the volume of messages would make the crime any less but the quality of messages show there is absolutely no role for me,” Pais said.

He showed the court a message sent by Umar and said, “I am simply giving people the location of the protest site.”

Pais, after reading out a protected witness statement, said this witness was an “indication of a pattern of false implication in this FIR”.

Pais told the court that a witness had “cherry picked the names” in his statement.

“Where in his statement, or chargesheet, where is the distinction in the role of persons. You pick one person and leave others. I am not saying others should be arrested…Most people assigned roles are not arrested and I am arrested…Chor ki dhadi me tinka is clearly visible here,” Pais submitted.

“He is not able to point out a single activity which I undertook by virtue of which it could be called a conspiracy or terrorist act,” Pais said.

On police allegations that Khalid wanted rioting and “blood to spill on streets”, Pais argued that there was no search or seizure and nothing whatsoever has been recovered.

While referring to a secret meeting which the police claim took place in Seelampur, Pais argued that the pictures of this meeting were taken and uploaded on Facebook.

“Let’s see the first allegation that it is a secret meeting. Picture was downloaded. I didn’t know pics were put on Facebook. You allow yourself to be photographed. And you call it a secret meeting?” Pais said.

He argued that “none of the witnesses say this was a secret meeting” and if he was a mastermind, then why will he talk about the conspiracy in front of protected witnesses.

Pais told the court, “I will spill the beans of the conspiracy? How would a person who is a silent whisperer” will only speak in front of a protected witness.

“Witness is clearly a cooked up witness. You can’t have half truth to make a case against me…Most vicious language is used because once you cook up a statement, you can say anything,” Pais argued.