Plea for CAA protest videos ‘not valid’: Delhi Police to High Court

Image Courtesy:thehindu.com

According to Delhi Police, a plea moved by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student and activist Devangana Kalita, seeking copies of videos of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests was “not maintainable”. The Delhi Police told the Delhi High Court this on January 14, in response to the plea filed by Kalita, who is an accused in a case related to the North-East Delhi riots of February 2020.

Multiple news portals reported that the issue regarding maintainability of the plea was raised before Justice Suresh K Kait by Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the Delhi Police. The court has told the Delhi Police to “file an affidavit on the maintainability aspect within a week, with advance copy furnished to the other side. Response thereto, if any, be filed within five days thereafter”. The matter will be heard next on February 4.

Kalita, in her plea sought copies of videos of anti-CAA protests and other electronic data available with the police in the matter that were filed along with the charge-sheet in the case, stated news reports. Kalita is in judicial custody in the case under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), however, she has been granted bail in the case related to the riots in Jaffarabad area.

Delhi Police had earlier told a Delhi Court that Devangana Kalita, an MPhil student, and the founding member of Pinjra Tod, a collective of women academics, was trying to create a ‘narrative to show’ that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician Kapil Mishra were behind the communal riots that raged through North East Delhi in February 2020. Delhi Police, while opposing the bail application of Devangana Kalita, told a Delhi court that she created “a narrative” and then made the larger masses believe that the narrative was correct.