JNU student and Pinjra Tod member Devangana Kalita, arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, alleged before a Delhi court on Friday that the police had carried out an insidious prosecution against her in a case related to north-east Delhi riots.
The submissions were made before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat during hearing of her bail plea in the case related to larger conspiracy in the communal violence.
The police claimed in the chargesheet that Ms. Kalita, along with others, had allegedly given provocative speeches at protest sites to instigate the crowd.
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Prosecution will counter the arguments of the accused on Saturday.
During the hearing on Friday, advocate Adit Pujari, appearing for Ms. Kalita, referred to the seizure memo files submitted with the chargesheet and said the police allegedly submitted incomplete documents deliberately to falsely show that around 300 women, who came from Jahangirpuri to Jafrabad where protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) were held, precipitated the violence.
He said the prosecution’s case was that these women came allegedly armed with acid bottles and chilli powder and were instigated by Kalita and others to cause violence.
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He said the prosecution has allegedly put selective messages from the WhatsApp chats of police officials to prove their purpose and chosen not to put on record the messages where they are aware that another kind of protests or march was ongoing by pro-CAA protestors.
The police have submitted screenshots of WhatsApp group where police is closely monitoring the movement of the 300 women who came from Jahangirpuri and allegedly precipitated the riots Police has deliberately declined to place on record messages from 12:39 pm to 12:49 pm with a view to paint an incomplete picture. Police suppressed the messages that were actually talking about the violence which started at Maujpur.
“This is mischievous. This is insidious. They are hiding these messages,” Pujari alleged.
The police chose to demonstrate one message to prove that women from Jahangirpuri had caused the violence, Mr. Pujari alleged.