Umar produced in court in handcuffs, judge takes note, issues notice to jail authorities

Former JNU student Umar Khalid, an accused in a UAPA case filed in connection with the Northeast Delhi riots, was brought to a Delhi court in handcuffs on Thursday, despite a court order asking police to refrain from doing this. The court has now issued a notice to the Director General (Prisons) asking whether prison authorities had passed the orders to handcuff him.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Amitabh Rawat also said he “deems it fit to bring the lapses, if any, to the notice of the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, who may file a report after inquiry through any responsible senior officer whether the accused Umar Khalid was brought in handcuffs today and, if so, on what grounds/orders”.

A senior police officer posted with the Delhi Prisons Department said, “We are checking if he was really handcuffed. A fact-finding enquiry will be conducted to know the reason. We will also approach the court to check whether a senior official gave the order for handcuffs and also the conditions for the previous court order.”

“We are checking why he was brought in handcuffs,” said an officer from the Special Cell.

Senior officers from the Special Cell investigating Khalid’s case and the Delhi Police Headquarters refused to comment on the notice.

Umar was to appear before ASJ Rawat on Thursday morning. Since the ASJ was on leave in the morning, the reader of the court noted the presence of counsel and the accused persons, and there was no production before the Link Judge or any other judicial officer.

ASJ Rawat passed the order in the evening after Umar’s lawyer, senior advocate Trideep Pais, informed him that police produced him in handcuffs despite there being no order from this court and two contrary orders passed by two separate courts.

Pais told the court that this was a “violation of the rights of the accused and inquiry must be conducted to find fault with the delinquent police officials”.

ASJ Rawat stated that “it needs no reiteration that an undertrial remains in custody of the court throughout the proceedings and any step of fetters/handcuff, which are extreme steps, can only be taken after a court allows the same on a request or an application containing reasons. This court has passed no such orders for this accused or, for that matter, any accused in this case.”

The court also noted that there are orders dated April 7, 2021, and January 17, 2022, passed by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dr Pankaj Sharma, “whereby it was stated that no such order exists for producing accused Umar Khalid in fetters”.

The court said that in this case, “even the investigating agency i.e. Special Cell has never asked for such a prayer in this case.”

In June 2021, an order was passed by ASJ Vinod Yadav, which dismissed an application on behalf of the lock-up in-charge seeking to produce the accused in the case in handcuffs as they are “high-risk prisoners”. ASJ Yadav called the application devoid of merit and had noted in the order that Umar and Khalid Saifi, another accused in the UAPA case, were “admittedly not previous convicts. They are not even gangsters”.

Pais said that Umar was handcuffed despite clear orders, the latest of which was passed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate after issuing notice to the lock-up in-charge and the Jail Superintendent. “It was noted in this order that there is no pre-existing order that could be located… However, today he was produced in handcuffs and when asked, the persons who produced him categorically stated that they had produced him in handcuffs by virtue of order dated April 7, 2021,” he said.

The CMM had on January 17 this year stated that from the record, it appears that no such order exists. It had directed the jail authorities to produce Umar “in a routine manner without using handcuffs or fetters”.