The Delhi High Court Thursday reserved its verdict in Delhi Police’s plea against trial court’s order discharging Sharjeel Imam, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Safoora Zargar and eight others in the 2019 Jamia violence case.
A single judge bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma reserved its verdict after hearing counsels for all parties.
Appearing for Zargar, senior advocate Rebecca John argued that the person who has been identified as her client had a face cover: “How can these witnesses come to the conclusion it is me? Until my identity isn’t confirmed, my role has to be disconnected.”
John said, “My home was near place of incident, hence CDR (call detail record) was of no consequence…”
She argued that Zargar was not named until the second supplementary chargesheet filed in July 2021 for an incident that happened in 2019. She said, “It’s my argument that somewhere you’ve to say how did you identify this person. You can’t make out who that person is.”
She claimed that the two police officers who were standing outside the gate close to the site where the incident took place have not identified her client. She referred to a statement made by an ASI to argue that the word (ladkon/ladka) used in the chargesheet referred to me. “I am not a ladka, I’m a ladki.”
She further argued that Safoora was not among the 42 people who were apprehended and sent to Badarpur police station. She countered the statements of two witnesses, a caretaker of Ambedkar hostel and a peon who had been shown photos from the footage of the incident and allegedly identified her client even though they were not present at the site. “Somewhere they have to say how they identified,” John said to which the court asked if this is permissible at the stage of charge. John said, “Yes, if identity is not known.”…
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