new delhi: A Delhi court has dismissed an application by former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, arrested under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, seeking permission to meet his family during his police custody. Khalid is in police custody for 10 days, till September 24, in a case related to the large conspiracy in the communal violence in north-east Delhi in February. He was arrested on September 13 and the next day the court allowed police to interrogate him in its custody saying it was a fit case for police custody remand. The cops had said they wanted to confront him with documents running into 11 lakh pages. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed his application seeking permission to meet his family members saying there were no merits in it. The counsel for the accused (Khalid) had made a specific request for allowing the meeting time of the accused with the counsel during police custody remand and the same was allowed for every day for 30 minutes during the entire police custody remand. In the totality of facts and circumstances of the case, I see no merit in the application, and accordingly, the application is dismissed, the judge said in his order passed on September 19. In his application filed through his counsel, Khalid stated that verbal assurance was given by the police at the time of remand that he would be allowed to meet his family but they were not being permitted. During the hearing, his counsel told the court that since the police custody remand was extraordinarily long, he should not be deprived of meeting with his family or friends. The application sought permission for the accused to meet his family on at least two days for a period of 30 minutes each day. The investigating officer in his reply to the application stated that as per the directions of the court Khalid has been allowed to meet his counsel every day and that meeting family members may influence the interrogation and could be a hindrance. The police further claimed that during his police remand the former JNU student leader was being confronted with huge data on a regular basis and he was not co-operating. The IO said that Khalid was already meeting with his counsel and if he has to convey any message to his family members, he can convey that through his lawyer. His lawyer argued that the period for meeting with his family may be interchanged partially with his meeting time.

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