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