8 July 2002

SECOND MI OPINION WILL NAIL POLICE LIE, SAYS IFTIKHAR'S COUNSEL

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: The Government finds itself caught on the wrong foot for detaining for the past one month the Kashmir Times' Delhi Bureau chief Iftikhar Gilani under the Official Secrets Act of 1923 as it is not able to counter his claim that the military information recovered from his computer is not "secret" but part of a Pakistani publication of 1996.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani sought to deny existence of any such publication two days ago when a journalists' deputation called on him and Delhi Police on Monday stoutly refused to obtain second opinion of the Military Intelligence on the booklet, extracts of which have been used to arrest and harass Iftikhar.

Advani has been now provided a copy of the booklet and Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ms Sangita Dhingra Sehgal has reserved her ruling on MI's second expert opinion for July 12 while extending Iftikhar's judicial remand till that date. The booklet has not been even proscribed till date though published back in 1996 to invite any offence for possessing its extracts.

Iftikhar's lawyer V K Ohri pleaded before her in the "in camera" hearing in her chamber that Police had deliberately obtained MI's opinion on the extracts found on his computer and such an opinion rendered "out of context" is bound to go wrong.

He argued that the right context will be established if the MI sees the whole booklet and then explain how a material published in 1996 can be treated as "secret." He is pressing for the MI's fresh expert opinion under Sections 45 and 46 of the Evidence Act, pointing out that it will nail the lie of "secret papers" concocted by the Police.

Police prosecutor Rakesh Mohan sought to plead that the military opinion cannot be obtained and he had no answer when the court wanted to know whether the book was published in 1996 or not and why it cannot be verified, Ohri told reporters after the closed-door hearing. He said the Court decided to give its considered ruling in the matter on Friday.

Ohri said if the second opinion of the Military Intelligence is obtained, the Court will have no option but to close the case as the published material cannot be treated as "secret" by any stretch of imagination to continue with the case under the Official Secrets Act.

He also argued that the published material was not relevant even in 1996 when it was published as otherwise the Government would have registered a case at that time and hence it cannot become suddenly relevant to harass Iftikhar.

The Police prosecutor, of course, tried to change the course of arguments but pointing out that Iftikhar had "connections" with militants like Hurriyat Conference leader Geelani and Bhatt, but Ohri said he rubbished the argument pointing out that till yesterday both were not militants since they were in the good books of the government. Moreover,

Ohri said both the Kashmiri leaders have not been booked for any crime till date as they have been only under preventive detention. If they have not committed any offence, how can Iftikhar be accused of any crime just because of his links with them, Ohri asked.

Police also moved the court to permit it to take possession of the video cassettes recovered from the locked house of Bhatt at 18-C Malviya Nagar Extension on the same day on June when Iftikhar's house was raided, pleading that these may have incriminating evidence against Iftikhar.

Iftikhar, however, stoutly denied that these VCDs belonged to him. The Court permitted Police to make copies of these VCDs in the presence of Iftikhar's lawyer Ohri on July 11 at 10.30 AM. END