Umar Khalid's lawyer argued that chargesheet has no basis or facts, it is a work of fiction.
In the North East Delhi violence case, the counsel for accused Umar Khalid on Wednesday concluded his arguments on the bail plea.
He argued that the chargesheet has no basis of facts. It is a work of fiction. Tomorrow the prosecution will submit its rebuttal arguments.
Additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat on Wednesday listed the matter for rebuttal arguments by the prosecution after hearing the submission made by the defense counsel Tridip Pais.
The defense counsel argued that chargesheet has no basis or facts, it is a work of fiction.
"There are contradictions in the statements of witnesses. There are contradictions between what witnesses say before police and what they say before magistrate while recording their statements," the counsel said.
Advocate Pais argued police used words like diabolical, insidious for the speech delivered at Amaravati by Umar Khalid. He argued that the speech was about Gandhi, harmony and Constitution and not a crime.
He submitted that the chargesheet is not about the fact. In this case, the narrative was first written and the evidence was searched. Chargesheet said about the spilling of blood but it has no basis for it. Fictional stories do not have the basis of facts, he added.
He questioned the prosecution by referring to a witness Delta who was, according to the prosecution, was in constant touch with the police since January 2020 and was giving information about the meetings. He questioned then how can riots happened.
The counsel for the accused referred to a call of a senior police officer to Umar Khalid requesting him to provide help regarding stopping the protest at police headquarters after the riots of February 24, 2020.
He also referred to a letter of September 1, 2020, written to the Commissioner of police by Umar Khalid alleging that witnesses are tutored to name him as accused and they were given pre-drafted statement. It was told by one of the prosecution witnesses to him on August 29, 2020.
He said after 13 days of this letter, Umar Khalid was arrested. He also questioned the argument of making calls after riots broke out on February 24 and travelling out of Delhi. He said calling each other at the time of crisis is not a crime. Travelling is also not a crime.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)