Former Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha who moved the Delhi High Court in 2020 against leaking of his alleged confession statement by the Delhi police to the media in its 2020 Northeast Delhi riots "larger conspiracy case" Tuesday said that there has to be fairness in the trial. Appearing for Tanha, senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal submitted before a single judge bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani that police are entitled to give information with regard to the developments in the case; however whether "so and so has accepted the guilt is a problem as it is an inadmissible material which you are touting as the truth, where you are mischaracterising an individual as guilty". Aggarwal informed the court that this was a case where during the time when the investigation was going on, certain "disclosures" are handed out and "read out copiously on prime time news, at a time when the chargesheet had not been filed". Aggarwal emphasised that “when I'm (Tanha) being remanded from time to time, those documents are not given to me but my "disclosure" is given to the media which is used page by page". Aggarwal further argued that in the present case, he was asking the court to look at how his client is aggrieved as his “opposing litigant and how the press as the fourth estate” is dealing with him. He submitted that additionally, the state has an obligation in his case. “You suffer a higher level of disability,” Justice Bhambhani remarked, to which Aggarwal said, “In law, I'm disabled from reacting to any of this and my opposing litigant is significantly advantaged.” It was argued that if the charge against an accused is higher, then the responsibility of the state in dealing with the accused will also be higher. Thereafter a video clip published by a news agency was shown to the court, wherein the reporter is allegedly holding a document purported to be the “disclosure statement” and “reading it verbatim”. The Delhi Police represented by Rajat Nair said that a vigilance enquiry was conducted wherein journalists were called. As stated in the police's reply filed in August 2021, various media personnel were examined but they “refused to share the details of their source from where they had accessed the investigation-related documents”. Nair today submitted that even Delhi Police is aggrieved as there is running commentary happening which is impeding the police's investigation. When asked by the court whether information pertaining to the investigation was leaked, Nair said that some of the contents were in the public domain. In its reply, police have submitted that as per the vigilance report, “the enquiry officer, during the enquiry could not establish the officers/office from where the details of the investigation were shared with the media”. It also said that directions are being issued that case files must be handled with “utmost alacrity” and that the chargesheets be also filed “strictly following the due process of law”. The matter is now listed on January 23. Tanha in his 2020 petition has argued that the timing of the “leak” of the purported statement, which is inadmissible in law, to the media and “publication of this false information purportedly from the police files, at a time when bail application of the petitioner is pending consideration before the trial court, creates a reasonable apprehension that the process of justice is being attempted to be subverted”. His bail was then pending before the trial court. On March 5, 2021, the High Court was also told that the supplementary chargesheet filed before the trial court on February 25, 2021, was also leaked to the media even before its cognisance was taken by the court. Tanha was released on bail by the High Court in June 2021.
