SC stays HC order allowing Devangana Kalita to inspect unrelied electronic evidence in Delhi riots case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Delhi High Court order permitting Delhi riots accused Devangana Kalita to inspect unrelied electronic evidence kept in the police malkhana before the stage of framing of charges in the larger conspiracy case linked to the 2020 North-East Delhi riots.

A Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M. Pancholi passed the interim order while hearing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the Delhi Police challenging the Delhi High Court’s decision, which had allowed Kalita to inspect unrelied documents while rejecting her plea seeking copies of videos of anti-CAA protests and WhatsApp chats of police groups collected during the investigation.

Appearing for the Delhi Police, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju contended that an accused is not entitled to inspect unrelied documents before charges are framed and relied on earlier Supreme Court decisions.

ASG Raju argued that the plea was intended to delay the trial as arguments on charge were still pending before the trial court and submitted that if Kalita were ultimately discharged, the question of inspection would not arise.

Opposing the appeal, counsel for Kalita submitted that she was seeking access to videos showing that she had participated in peaceful anti-CAA protests and not indulged in violence.

“If the videos show I am sitting peacefully, I should be discharged; why should I go through the trial?” Kalita’s counsel argued.

However, the Justice Kumar-led Bench observed that such submissions constituted a defence that could be raised at the appropriate stage during the trial and not at the stage of arguments on charge.

Staying the operation of the Delhi High Court’s order permitting inspection of the unrelied documents, the apex court clarified that the trial court was free to proceed with the hearing on framing of charges.

The SLP arose from a June 5 judgment of the Delhi High Court, which had dismissed Kalita’s challenge seeking access to videos of anti-CAA-NRC protests and WhatsApp chats of police personnel relied upon during the investigation but allowed her plea to inspect unrelied documents kept in the police malkhana.

The High Court had also vacated an interim order passed in September 2024 that had restrained the trial court from passing a final order on framing of charges, thereby clearing the way for the trial court to proceed with the case.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna had directed the prosecution to facilitate expeditious inspection of the malkhana in accordance with law while directing the petitioner to cooperate so that the trial was not unnecessarily delayed.

According to the Delhi Police, several student activists involved in organising protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) during 2019-20 conspired to engineer the communal riots that broke out in North-East Delhi in February 2020.

Kalita is among the accused in the larger conspiracy case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). She was granted bail by the Delhi High Court in June 2021 along with co-accused Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha, a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court.

IANS