Ishrat Jahan Had No Reason To Align With Co-Accused But To Conspire For Delhi Riots: Prosecution Tells Court

Opposing the bail plea filed by Former Congress Councillor Ishrat Jahan, the prosecution on Tuesday told a Delhi Court that she had no reason to align with the other co-accused person but to conspire for Delhi Riots.

Jahan is booked in connection with the Delhi Riots larger conspiracy case.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat heard Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad who sought to highlight a connection between Jahan and other co-accused persons and show that the riots were premeditated as a part of a larger conspiracy.

"Ishrat Jahan was a local councillor. She has got nothing to do either in JNU or in DU. They are not contemporaneous in terms of their education. They are not aligned. One is a congress person the other is leftist. On what pretext do you get together?" Prasad submitted. 

He argued that the Khureji protest site was not organic and was in fact controlled and organised by the Jamia Coordination Committee, hatched from a long time. He added that a suggestion that her prosecution is a witch-hunt would be nothing but an attempt to derail one's thought process.

To support his contentions, he placed reliance on CDR details and phone records to show that Jahan was in constant touch with other co-accused persons and that there was an aspect of funding, which according to him was completely ignored by her counsel.

"There was a direct connection with other co-accused persons. There are a total of 11 calls with Khalid Saifi. 14 with Athar and many more. The fact that WhatsApp was used is a reflection of pattern of usage. No data is available. Unless we have a formatted clean and unaltered phone of Ishrat, then only we can find other details out," Prasad argued.

Prasad also argued that there are documentary evidence by two persons who, prior to the registration of the FIR, alleged that the riots were planned. He also stated that the said evidences are part of the chargesheet.

"Our attempt is to only show that there was communication. The fact that she was not a part of DPSG group does not make any difference. She was in touch with all others who were part of DPSG. She was managing the protest site in Khureji," Prasad argued.

He added:

"There are three levels of conspirators in this case. One is the principal conspirator. Second is who do the conspiracy at local level and third who do the actual rioting. She is at the second level. She is getting the execution done. There are statements which say that you (Ishrat) arrange money and we will arrange the weapons. She is in touch with the last limb of rioters. By virtue of FIR 44/2020 she is part of the second level of conspiracy. This is the reason why Natasha Narwal is connected in Jafarabad case. Local conspiracy was done by them. She is in touch with the larger conspiracy."

During the course of hearing, the judge posed a question to Prasad asking him as to how does the case fall within the purview of Section 15 of the UAPA Act. The said section provides for a terrorist act.

"When you say there is a terrorist activity in sec. 15, which of the four clauses apply?" the judge asked.

FIR 59/2020 registered against Jahan contains stringent charges including Sections 13, 16, 17, 18 of the UAPA, Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act and Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act,1984 and other offences under Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Earlier, Jahan had claimed that there is no iota of evidence to show her involvement in the Delhi Riots larger conspiracy case and that the prosecution has falsely implicated her in the matter. It was also submitted that Jahan's case is on a better footing than the other co-accused persons who have been granted bail in the matter.

Others who were charge-sheeted in FIR 59/2020 include Former AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain, Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, Meeran Haider and Shifa-Ur-Rehman, activist Khalid Saifi, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Salim Malik, Mohd Salim Khan and Athar Khan.

A supplementary charge-sheet was thereafter filed in the case against former JNU student leader Umar Khalid and JNU student Sharjeel Imam.