The Delhi Police Special Cell raided the lawyer’s office on Thursday Mehmood Pracha in connection with his investigation into large-scale communal violence that broke out in the Capital in February, ANI reported. Pracha has been fighting cases on behalf of many defendants in the riots.
Searches were conducted after get an order from a local court, a senior police officer said The Hindu.
Pracha said investigators confiscated his computer and laptop. Police said they were looking for “incriminating documents” and “outbox metadata” from the official email address of Pracha’s firm.
In August, Delhi police had filed a first information report against Pracha, alleging that the defender had “instructed” victims to make false statements in cases related to riots, according to The wire. Additional sessions judge Vinod Yadav ordered the police commissioner to instruct the special cell or criminal branch to investigate the allegations against the lawyer. Pracha had denied the accusations.
“This is a violation of the order”: Attorney @MehmoodPracha tells police about the seizure of his office computer and laptop https://t.co/5RnLeU4pIg pic.twitter.com/L0Z1YdNvLi
– Aditya Menon (@ AdityaMenon22) Dec 24, 2020
Clashes between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposed to it broke out between February 23 and 26 in northeast Delhi, killing 53 people and injuring hundreds. The Delhi Police were accused of inaction or complicity in some cases of violence, mainly in Muslim neighborhoods.
Delhi police claim the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to smear the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was devised by those who organized the protests against the amended Citizenship Act. In addition, they claimed that the protesters had secessionist motives and were using “the facade of civil disobedience” to destabilize the government. Police have arrested several activists and students on these “conspiracy” charges.
So far, two acts have been presented in relation to the violence. In September, a case of rioting was recorded at Khajuri Khas Police Station in which 15 people were arrested, including suspended Aam Aadmi party adviser Tahir Hussain. All 15 have been charged under the articles of the Prevention of Illegal Activities Act, the Indian Penal Code and the Weapons Act. The 17,000 page charge sheet was filed in the Karkardooma court.
On November 22, Delhi police filed a supplemental charge sheet against former student leader Umar Khalid and two other student activists from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Sharjeel Imam and Faizan Khan, in the case. On the 200-page charge sheet, the police claimed that Khalid had “remotely controlled” the violence. The former JNU student was accused of orchestrating the violence during US President Donald Trump’s visit to Delhi.
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