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Delhi High Court continued hearing Bail Plea of Mohd. Arif, accused in Delhi Riots case.

Justice Subramonium Prasad, while hearing the matter today, said,

“Whether 5 or more persons ‘joined’ for the purpose is one question, whether they were moving together to the place where stone pelting occurred is one question and then they indulged in stone pelting resulting in death of police personnel is one question.”

Learned SPP, Amit Prasad made submissions to establish that the accused was present at the place of incident relying on CCTV footages and Insignia particular to the accused.

“Identification of a person on the basis of yellow t-shirt – relying on a software, is that a ground to deny bail or not will be the scope of arguments,” Court added.

The videos relied upon showed huge gathering to which the learned SPP submitted that identification in such cases cannot be done through naked eyes.

Court responded, “When you argue, just keep in mind that the place where incident took place, if there is a difficulty to identify a person in the video, the pendulum swings towards grant of bail rather than against it.”

Referring to the status report in the matter, Justice Subramonium Prasad added that there were two people wearing yellow T-shirt and Nehru Jacket.

On tracing of location through phone, Court asked, how much can the prosecution rely on it in an application for Bail?

“All that I am trying to show is that, it is not an innocent person who has been picked up and put behind the bars,” said Special PP Mr. Prasad.

The Court while taking on record that framing of charge in certain FIRs related to the matter had already commenced, posted it tomorrow for further hearing. Learned PP Amit Prasad will continue with his submissions followed by Learned ASG SV Raju.

Senior Counsel Salman Khursheed intervened to seek permission of the Court for filing a report in the matter, formulated under Senior Adv. Chander Uday Singh.

Taking strong objections, Learned ASG SV Raju said,

“It is not permissible, not even at the stage of Trial. How can you file opinion of a Third Party in a Criminal case? This is not what the procedure allows”

Senior Counsel Mr. Khursheed responded,

“I am seeking permission from the Court, I do not know where does Criminal Procedure Code stops me from seeking permission of the Court.”

Court while directing prosecution to place on Affidavit, the CCTV footages and their communication to the parties, posted the matter for tomorrow at 3:30 pm.

Case Title: Mohd Arif v. Stat