New Delhi, April 24 (). The Delhi High Court on Monday said it will hear on August 2 a plea filed by 2020 riots accused Asif Iqbal Tanha, seeking a direction to the media to withhold sensitive and confidential material about the investigation.
Appearing before a bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Tanha’s counsel Advocate Saujanya Sankaran said: An FIR has been registered in connection with the Delhi riots. I (Tanha) was an accused in the FIR. My bail application was pending before the lower court. During the pendency of my bail application and more than four weeks before the charge sheet was filed in any court, portions of the charge sheet were read out on national television.
This includes what is alleged to be my disclosure statement, where the private respondent – Zee News and some other respondents (OpIndia) started publishing the entire material from the chargesheet which should not be in the public domain.
Sankaran said that in January two intervention applications were filed by media organisations, stating that they were also affected by the writ and therefore wanted to be heard.
Sankaran also said that two judges of the High Court had recused themselves from hearing Tanha’s petition last week. He said : The same was heard in detail. Justice (Anoop Jairam) Bhambhani then recuses himself from the case, as he had a past association with one of the intervenors. The matter then went to Justice Amit Sharma. He also isolated himself.
Our submissions on the intervention application are not maintainable and it is a private matter, argued the counsel. There is no major interest of media organizations or media houses. Beyond that it should be put to logic.
Justice Sharma noted that Respondent Nos. 4 (YouTube) and 5 (Facebook) were struck off the array of parties in November 2020 and two intervention applications have been filed by the News Broadcasters Federation and the National Broadcasters Digital Association (NBDA).
Justice Sharma was the second judge to recuse from hearing the case on April 19, the first being Justice Bhambhani.
The petition was filed in August 2020 following media reports about Asif’s revealing statement to the Delhi Police.
As per the petition, Zee News circulated the charge sheet for its case six weeks before it was produced in the court.
Tanha accepted that the riots were the result of a conspiracy and was asked by JNU alumnus Umar Khalid to organize the chakka jam with the help of other members of the Jamia Coordination Committee, according to reports.
Then, he filed a petition in the court, arguing that the material was leaked by the Delhi Police and that as a result of the leak to media outlets such as OpIndia, Zee Media, Facebook and YouTube, the officer’s misconduct should be investigated.
He claimed that because they clouded the minds of the judge and the public, such leaks were detrimental to a fair trial.
Tanha claimed that the leaked information had no value as evidence and accused the Delhi Police of having malicious intent.
SGK
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