"Absolutely Illegal And Unjustified": Advocate Mehmood Pracha Moves Delhi Court Against Delhi Police's Second Raid

Advocate Mehmood Pracha has moved a Delhi Court against the second raid conducted by the Delhi Police's Special Cell on 9th March 2021, calling the whole exercise as "completely illegal and unjustified". Pracha has been representing many accused persons in the Delhi Riots conspiracy cases that broke out in February last year.

The Delhi Police has raided Mehmood Pracha's office in December last year also after stating that that the raid was based on a warrant from a local court to search for "incriminating documents" and "metadata of outbox" of the official email address of Pracha's law firm.

The prayer of the application moved by Advocate Mehmood Pracha reads thus:

"It is most humbly prayed that the order dated 02.03.2021 passed by this Hon'ble Court be modified to the above referred extent i.e. direct the IO and whichever senior officers as may be exercising the relevant powers to require the Applicant to produce the computer/s they are seeking, and the Applicant shall himself bring it/them before this Hon'ble Court, whereafter the IO and other senior officers can extract the concerned documents etc from it and make their copy in presence of this Hon.ble Court."

According to Advocate Mehmood Pracha, it has been alleged that the second raid was conducted in his absence wherein more than 100 police persons searched his office while he was appearing before the Court of ASJ Dharmender Rana.

It has been contended that the Police, while searching his official premises on 24th and 25th of December 2020, have already collected all the documents etc and seized them in a pen drive. According to Pracha, the whole exercise was conducted with the "sole objective of illegally stealing the entire data" of the sensitive cases he has been dealing with, in which the Special Cell itself is the investigating agency.

While contending that the IO approached the Court directly without seeking documents or record from the Applicant under sec. 91 of CrPC, it has been further submitted that:

"Although an actually free and fair investigation would reveal the real truth that the present case is completely baseless and has been instituted with the sole objective of hounding the applicant/accused at the behest of and as a part of a conspiracy involving senior politicians, bureaucrats and even judicial officers, yet, as has been previously been submitted during the hearings in this matter, the applicant is going to the extent of risking self-implication even in derogation of his Fundamental Right only for the sake of protecting the data and information pertaining to his clients and briefs (completely unconnected to the allegations being investigated) which is his bounden duty as an advocate, under the law of the land."

Stating that he volunteers yet again to furnish any specific documents sought by the investigating agency and also to re furnish what was taken during the previous exercise, Advocate Pracha prays from the Court to direct the IO or any senior official to produce the computer they are seeking and thereafter he shall himself bring the same before the Court in order to be extracted by the IO or senior officer.