Court stays warrant against Delhi riots lawyer

A Delhi court has stayed the operation of search warrants against advocate Mehmood Pracha in connection with the alleged use of forged documents in judicial records in a Northeast Delhi riots case.

Delhi: A Delhi court passed an interim order staying the operation of search warrants against advocate Mehmood Pracha on Wednesday in connection with the alleged use of forged documents in judicial records in a Northeast Delhi riots case.

On Tuesday, a team of counterintelligence members of the Special Cell had gone to conduct searches at the Nizamuddin East office of Pracha. They, however, returned as the office was locked.

After this, Pracha moved an application before a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate saying that the police have already collected documents and accessed all computers installed in his office during the raids conducted in December 2020.

The court reserved its order for March 12 on the advocate's plea which has also sought a direction to the police to retrieve only the relevant information from his hard disk in the presence of a Magistrate.

Pracha said that a soft copy of the materials was as good as a hard copy under the Information Technology Act.

"They want to threaten my clients. That's their purpose. In the main Delhi riots cases, they say soft copy is equal to hard copy and we would not give hard copy of charge sheet. Here they don't want soft copy, he said.

Delhi police opposed Pracha's plea, saying that seizing the original hard disk was essential as it ought to be sent to a forensic science laboratory for examination and that a mirror hard disk can be put back into his computer.

Pracha, who has been representing accused persons in Delhi riots cases, was raided by the Delhi Police on December 24, 2020, also.

With inputs from agency