A Delhi Court has dismissed a plea filed by the former student leader of JNU, arrested under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged role in the northeast Delhi riots, seeking permission to meet his family during his police custody.
Umar Khalid was arrested on September 13 by Delhi Police and was charged under UAPA for his alleged role in the violence which took place in the northeast Delhi in February. The next day he was sent by a Karkardoona court in Delhi to police custody for 10 days.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed the plea filed by Umar Khalid seeking permission to meet his family members, saying that there were no merit in it.
“In the totality of facts and circumstance of the case, I see no merit in the application, and accordingly, the application is dismissed,” the judge said in the order passed on September 19.
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The court noted that the counsel for the accused had requested to allow a meeting time of the accused with his counsel during police custody remand and the same was allowed for every day for 30 minutes during the entire custody remand. Also, an apprehension of safety was raised by the counsel for the accused, for which a specific direction was given to the concerned DCP (Deputy Commissioner of Police) to ensure the safety of the accused.
In his plea filed through his counsel, Mr. Khalid claimed that the verbal assurance was given by the police at the time of remand that he would be allowed to meet his family but they were not being permitted.
During the hearing, Khalid’s counsel said that since the police custody is extraordinarily long, the accused should not be deprived of meeting with his family or friends. He, further, requested to let his accused to meet his family on at least two days for 30 minutes every day.
Special public prosecutor Amit Parsad had opposed the plea saying that there is no provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for allowing meetings with the family of the accused during his custody and added that meeting with the council has already been allowed.
The investigation officer (IO) in his reply to the application said that as per the court’s direction, Khalid has been allowed to meet his counsel every day. He further added that if he has to convey any message to his family members, he can convey that through his lawyers.
